Naruto: Sharpshooter
by LethalBlades
Summary: Fueled by the death of a precious person, Naruto aspires to be stronger to live up to the person's name. Watch as he gains strength and strikes down the enemies of the leaf... or rather, shoots them down. Rated M for Language and possible sexual content Smart!Strong!Naruto
1. Ch 1 How it all started

Hello, people… and not-people? Is that even a thing? I know of the ones identifying themselves as attack helicopters? Do we consider them to be "people"?

Anyhow, enough of my nonsense.

Welcome to my first piece of literature. Though probably filled with mistakes and holes that I couldn't find by myself, I still hope that you will be able to read it. I've had this idea for a while now and just now worked up the courage to actually write it out.

I have several other story ideas for the Naruto franchise, and I might write those up as well, but that won't be for a while.

The title of the story will make sense after a while, I promise.

It is partly some kind of a prologue, and partly the start of the first arc, that being the reason for Naruto wanting to be so strong and him starting the academy and stuff.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. Review if you want, that would be a great help as well, but please keep it civil and constructive.

I'd also like to have a Beta-reader, because, like I said, there are probably a load of holes and mistakes that I failed to spot.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

LethalBlades

Edit: I have seen the review of the one named "Kid Jaws", and I have to agree, even though I intended for Naruto to sound much older, like MUCH older, but I modified the way Naruto speaks a little bit anyway, making him seem less like an old man and more like a smart 12 year old. I hope it is a little better now.

* * *

Naruto: Sharpshooter

* * *

Chapter 1. How it all started.

* * *

A blonde child, about six years of age, sat in his room at the orphanage, bored out of his mind. The caretakers hadn't let him out of his room today, saying that he should entertain himself. Normally he didn't mind, as he had books that Jiji always brought him, but he had read all of them already, thinking that he would be able to play outside today and receive more books tomorrow when the old man visited again. Now he was just sitting on his bed, staring at the wall.

He wanted to go outside and have fun! Then again, no one seemed to like him very much. At least, the adults seemed to dislike him. The kids just copied their parents or caretakers. He didn't mind very much, everyone was entitled to their opinion, but that did mean that there was usually no-one to play with. Loneliness was one of the things he learned to deal with though.

Reading had been able to occupy his mind, and most of the time he could be found in his room, reading one book or the other. He enjoyed all types of books, from adventure novels to math books he liked all of it, and it showed. He didn't have the mind of an average kid. He was highly intelligent and creative, solving advanced, for a six year old, math questions pretty easily and reading books aimed at teenagers. The Hokage, who was supplying the books, had noticed this of course, and proceeded to give him more material.

His flourishing mind didn't have the solution for boredom though, so he continued his wall-staring, waiting for something to happen.

He got what he wished, as not even a few seconds later the door to his room opened, his "caretaker" coming through it. "Caretaker-Sama, can I go outside now?" The caretaker looked down on the child, a glare on the man's face. He reminded Naruto of the illustration he saw in one of his books, it was of something called a gnome if he remembered correctly. The man was really short at five feet, standing only about a foot taller than the boy, and he was a bit bent at the waist, not being able to stand up straight due to old age. The old man had never been very kind to him, so he was used to the glare.

"Yes you will, but there will be a little twist…" The man said as he grabbed the blonde haired kid by his arm and dragged him to the orphanage entrance violently, almost dislocating the arm in question. Once there he looked the kid in the eye and shouted at him "I have put up with you long enough! You will be able to go outside, but you will never set a foot in this building again you piece of shit demon!" After his little rant, he literally threw Naruto out of the door and slammed the door behind him, glaring at him through the window.

Naruto was devastated. What was that about? Why couldn't he come back? He looked at the old man behind the window, sadness filling his being before he took off, not wanting to see this place for a long time to come.

* * *

Break

* * *

Naruto ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the place where Jiji said he could go to find him, the tower in the middle of the village. He had walked these streets before, so he knew to avoid the hotspots of the market and the business district, taking a route through the park and around the ninja academy grounds before finally arriving at the tower.

The door was quickly opened, revealing a big hall containing hundreds of people. He was kind of intimidated by the amount of people, but he was too focused on going to Jiji that he quickly lost the intimidation factor and started making his way to the stairs at the back of the hall, which should lead up to his office if he remembered correctly.

Weaving through the legs of the countless people, he finally made it through, though he had gotten a few shoves along the way from hateful people. Making his way up the stairs, he saw the door with 'Hokage' on it, which was what he was looking for. What he also spotted though, was his next obstacle, which was the secretary, who seemed to hate him as well, the indicator being the scathing glare she was sending him.

"What are you doing here demon?" She asked, getting up from behind her desk and looking down on him. She was about to give him a shove so he would "accidentally" fall down the stairs, but he was saved when the door to the office opened, revealing the Hokage in all of his glory. "What is going on here? I sensed Naruto-Kun and I told you to let him in at any time."

He looked at the situation and saw what his secretary was about to do, and he became enraged. "You are fired from today. Pack your stuff and I never want you in here again." He said in an eerily calm way, his face said otherwise though. After he said that to her, his face became happy again though, as he looked at Naruto. "Now, Naruto-Kun, come in so we can talk."

Ushering the boy in and closing the door behind them, glaring at the now fired secretary, he pointed to the chair in front of his desk for Naruto to sit on before taking a seat himself. "So, how are you doing my boy?" The man asked as he picked up his pipe and lit it, smoke rising out of it in no time.

"Actually, Jiji, not so good. I think that the caretaker doesn't want me to come back anymore..." Naruto started his story, telling the old Hokage everything about what had transpired that morning. Hiruzen almost blew his top, barely able to restrain himself from going to kill the old decrepit bastard that dared throwing out the son of his best friend. Given that the man, or the boy in question, didn't know that, but that didn't make it any better. He was stopped though, by the look Naruto had on his face. It was quite peaceful given the circumstances. "Jiji, even though I don't like that I don't have anywhere to live now, I don't blame that man for what he did. There is a reason for why these people hate me, even though I don't know what that is. I see the fear and hate in that man's eyes when he talked to me. Every one else looks at me like that. The kids look like they don't know why though. You don't get that look for no reason, so I forgive them, I really do."

The old man had tears in his eyes from how forgiving this child, just six years old, was. He looked at him, and could see the intelligence and wisdom in his eyes. The deep blue pools displayed it clearly. He had decided, he was going to tell him about his burden. "Naruto, I want to tell you something, and I want you to listen to me carefully, ok?" The blond in question nodded his head, putting his full focus on the village leader.

"Ok then, you might not like this, but I think you deserve to know this now. Well, you see, I know the reason why they hate or dislike you so much. Naruto, do you know about the attack on the village by the Kyuubi six and a half years ago?" Receiving a nod, he continued. "The books you read explained that it started attacking the village and that the fourth Hokage killed the beast in the end, yes?" Once again a nod. "Well, that is not entirely true. You know that chakra is the life energy of the body, created from yin and yang. That was in one of the books I gave you. Now, what you have to understand is that the Kyuubi is a chakra construct. Its body is made entirely from chakra pretty much. This means that you cannot kill it, only disperse it before it returns to its normal form a few years later, or it has to be sealed."

He could see that the boy had already started to figure it out, so he waited for a moment. Naruto's mind was going a mile a minute, trying to figure out where to old man was going with this. When he heard the word sealed, all of his thoughts clicked into place. "It's sealed into me, isn't it?" He asked with dread in his voice.

While proud that the boy had figured that out, the Hokage still didn't like this conversation. "Yes. Now, that does not make you the demon, but that means that you have it in you, and that you are saving the village every day that you are alive. The fourth Hokage also believed that you could wield the power to change the world someday." He finished his explanation, carefully watching the myriad of emotions going over Naruto's face. Sadness, anger, happiness, relief and lastly acceptance which stayed. The boy looked so old to the Hokage. Too old for his actual age, if that made any sense. He walked around the desk and kneeled next to Naruto, looking him straight in the eye.

"Now that you know what is going on... You see, I had problems with placing you in orphanages, and this one was the only one that would take you, and that is now shot, so… How would you like to live in your own apartment?"

* * *

Break

* * *

Paperwork was done quickly, and not even 3 hours later Naruto was looking at the building he would own. Yes, he would own the entirety of the small apartment building on the outskirts of town. It had been empty for almost five years now, so it was marked for demolition, but that made it perfect for someone like Naruto. Away from the general populace, he would be able to go outside without getting harassed or attacked, and he could even play around. There would be minimal threat, and that was great. Of course, it was abandoned for a reason, which was a few damages to the structure, but that was easily fixed with a certain ANBU using the Mokuton to place extra support beams.

Of course there would also be the ANBU guard, who would act as caretakers of sorts and take care of any threats that did appear. They would also help him with his daily things like shopping, laundry, cleaning and that kind of stuff until he was able to take care of himself. The Hokage already had some people in mind, and they would most likely jump at the chance as they normally did the life or death missions, and they all generally liked Naruto, which was always a plus.

He would have one of them stay with Naruto, which would be their extra "resting day" as they always had one weekday off, and the rest of it would be mission days. This way he still had some of his best ninja on missions, and he also had Naruto protected at all times. This was the best plan he ever came up with, even though he said so himself.

Being pulled from his musings by the little blond boy, Hiruzen looked at him and could see the anxiousness in his eyes. He put a reassuring hand on Naruto's shoulder and started walking towards the slightly run down stairs of the building. It had four apartments in it, as well as a basement for each one, accessible through a door in the back of the complex. He guided Naruto to the first apartment on the first floor and opened the door, ushering the boy inside.

Having entered the apartment, they seemed to be in a hallway, three doors apparent as well as a drawer and a coatrack. Curiously opening the first door, the blond six year old looked inside and found a bedroom, complete with closet drawers and a bookcase, as well as a bed and a nightstand with a lamp. His eyes almost teared up at the sight of the comfortable bed instead of the lumpy old thing, the pristine bookcase and the closet with actual doors in it.

Closing the first door while making a mental note to check it later, Naruto went into the second door completely opposite of the bedroom, and found the bathroom was situated in here. There was a bath with a shower head above it, a sink and a few cupboards. He was definitely taking a shower as soon as possible, as he knew he hadn't had one in a while. Stupid caretaker.

Last but not least, Naruto went on to the end of the hall, pressing the handle on the last door, opening it carefully, setting a step inside as he inspected the last room in the house. It was the living room, quite obviously, with a kitchen attached. He saw a comfortable looking black leather couch in the living part with a coffee table as well as a lounging chair on which he was going to spend a lot of hours reading. In the corners of the room stood more bookcases, clearly requested there by the old Hokage who knew he liked to read. The kitchen had all of the needed appliances, nothing that impressive to be honest. Though, he did like the black marble countertop, which was really nice.

He turned to his old grandfather figure, tears in his eyes as he hugged the old monkey, said man comforting him as he lead them to the couch which they both sat on. When Naruto was done crying in happiness, Sarutobi started to explain what was going to happen from now on. "Now that you have your own apartment building, you can modify it as you wish, as you own it now. I would suggest making training areas and such in the other apartments or the basement even, as you want to become a ninja, but that is for later when you are actually able to and have a need for it. For now though, I will introduce the ANBU who will be guarding you."

He stood up and snapped his fingers, making an ANBU with a cheetah mask appear at his feet, kneeling. "Cheetah, I want you to get me ANBU Squad 2 please." Nodding at the order, the operative left as fast as he could, which made him disappear from Naruto's vision. "That was so cool Jiji! Can I be as fast as him?" Naruto asked, genuinely curious. The old man chuckled, amused by the child's curiosity. "Sure you can, Naruto. You just need to apply yourself to your training and then you will be able to do anything." Naruto's hopeful eyes warmed his heart.

Before anything else could be said, six swirls of leaves appeared in the center of the room, revealing six ANBU operatives. "Well Naruto, it seems that your new caretakers have arrived." Sarutobi said as he stood up, signaling to the ANBU to stand at rest. "Naruto, I introduce you to ANBU Squad 2, members being Bird," he pointed at a man of about 5 foot 11 inches with short black messy hair and a bird mask. He seemed to stare Naruto into his soul before relenting and saying a quiet "hello". It creeped the six year old out like nothing else, but he didn't get to dwell on it as the Hokage moved on with the introductions.

"Boar" This time he gestured to one of the biggest men Naruto had ever seen, standing at a tall 6 foot 4 inches, the man sported millimetered brown hair and huge muscles which looked like they were made of steel. Boar looked at Naruto for a moment before stepping up and stretching out his hand for Naruto to take. "Hello little one, we will get along fine." He stated as the blond shook his hand. The giant of a man seemed nice, but he would see if his assumptions were correct.

"This lovely lady is Cat" A woman with long blonde hair waved at him, standing at a short 5 foot 7 inches she was a petite woman, but she looked strong. "Nice to meet you Naruto-Kun" the blond waved at her awkwardly, kind of surprised with her friendliness. He also got a weird feeling about her, like she was going to jump him when she got the chance.

"Then we have the ever mischievous Rat" The Hokage sighed a little. The woman in question stood at around a height of about 5 foot 9 inches, and her shoulder length black hair framed the Rat mask nicely. Naruto could swear that the woman was grinning behind her mask, but there was no way to tell.

"The green haired one is Mantis." The man stood a significant amount shorter than the rest of the squad, clocking in at about 5 feet 6 inches, had short green hair, and honestly looked like a wimp to Naruto. He wouldn't judge the guy though, as he was in ANBU after all. They were supposed to be the best in the village!

"And lastly there is Sloth" The Hokage ended. The man in question stood at a small 5 foot 7 inches, and looked like he would fall over any minute. On his head a mop of short spiky brown hair was present. Sloth looked extremely bored, and greeted him with a very uninterested wave and a "Yo" before looking out of the window, making the Hokage sigh at his laziness. The way the man was standing made it look like you could throw him off balance easily, but Naruto had a strong feeling this wasn't the case at all.

"Now, I presume you all heard what I said to young Naruto-Kun here?" The Hokage asked, getting all "Yes Sir!" in return. "Good. You five will be rotating per day, one operative of your squad watches over young Naruto per day, the rest performing missions, unless it is your off day of course. This also means that one person will have to watch over him twice per week-"

"I will volunteer Hokage-Sama!" came a sudden outburst from Boar, followed by a quick apology. Hiruzen was dumbfounded. Never had this man been so eager to take on a mission that didn't involve fighting a strong ninja. "Well, if you insist Boar, I will let you have two days a week. Now, moving on, you lot will be taking care of Naruto-kun here, schedule being: Monday: Boar, Tuesday: Bird, Wednesday: Rat, Thursday: Sloth, Friday: Cat, Saturday: Boar, and on Sunday he will be with Mantis before cycling back to Boar on Monday. Is that clear?" Getting all nods from the ANBU squad, he returned to Naruto.

"Is that an acceptable arrangement young Naruto-Kun?" The Hokage asked the blond. All Naruto could do was nod as he was speechless. These people were strong protectors of the village; would it really be ok for them to watch him? He decided to voice his thoughts, and got a chuckle from Sarutobi in return. "Of course it is my boy. Now, I will have to leave because I still have paperwork to complete and a new secretary to find, so since it is Monday today, Boar will be the one staying while the rest of you are dismissed." With that, the man disappeared in a swirl of leaves, the rest of the ANBU squad saying their farewells as well before departing, leaving Boar and Naruto alone.

After awkwardly standing around in the living room, Naruto finally found the courage to ask something. "So, what should we do, Boar-San?"

* * *

Time skip: A year and a half

* * *

A year had quickly passed by, and Naruto's life had improved by leaps and bounds. No longer was he a short and slightly malnourished little boy that just read books in his room at the orphanage all day. The ANBU had really helped to get his life on track. Eating right and occasionally playing outside with the ANBU members had improved his physique a little and made him taller as well.

What he still enjoyed the most though, was reading. And reading he did, burning through a book every few days, he had filled two bookcases with books and was halfway into the third one. The ANBU were all impressed by the way Naruto seemed to absorb knowledge at an incredible rate.

Each ANBU member had taught him a valuable lesson as well.

Bird had taught him to always think critically and analyze everything you see or hear. To never take things at face value but to think before accepting it as the truth. The team leader had played many games with him concerning things like that, and had had many conversations with him. The man had been extremely surprised at the blond's intellect and ingenuity at the start, but now he was used to it. The man had earned the Nii-san title after a few months, and the man took it in stride.

Boar had taught him to always be strong, but that when you are among loved ones that you can loosen up. He explained to Naruto that he was normally not this soft, and that Naruto had brought out the best in the man. This had made the little boy tear up a little, but he didn't cry. He was a strong young man after all. The burly man had turned out to be a bit of a father figure to Naruto, the man giving him life advice from time to time. Sure, the others did that as well, but Boar and Naruto just had a special connection. Not that Naruto would call him father, his title being Boar-nii, but it sure felt that way.

Cat had taught him to be kind to people, but to be fierce to your enemies, as well as general etiquette. She had taken the boy to the park numerous times, and had introduced him to other kids. Of course, more often than not the parents would take their kids away from them, but he had still made some acquaintances at least. He didn't want to call them friends, as he didn't hang out with them regularly though they talked sometimes. It had been healing for him after the incident at the orphanage as well as the general public opinion on him.

Rat had taught him to have fun every once in a while, also introducing him to pranks. With his intelligence and creativity he had even out-pranked the black haired woman multiple times. It had lightened his mood considerably, and it also helped with when he tried to make friends with Cat. He had been generally moody, but now he was overall pretty happy and made witty jokes from time to time. Rat-nee had been a huge influence, hence the suffix was brought into her name fairly quickly. Rat expected him to be an expert trap maker when he grew up.

Sloth had taught Naruto to relax every once in a while, as life was too short and if you stressed out you'd never enjoy it. While the blond child never really stressed over anything in particular, he still considered it valuable life advice. You can't know what happens in the future after all. Some days they would just lounge around and do nothing, leaving all the work to Cat who came in the day after. Cat would always shout at him, and he would just stand there looking bored. It was kind of hilarious to Naruto.

Finally, Mantis taught him to be disciplined. Routine would focus your mind and make it sharper, readying it for what was going to happen that day. Set clear goals, and find out a system to work with so that you can reach it. A problem arises? Don't get emotional and think of the best way to solve it. Calm your mind and think. It was very calming, and has helped the boy solve many problems logically and efficiently.

All in all, they had been of great influence to the young Uzumaki, and it showed. He was smarter than ever, asking the right questions and making the right decisions, having fun and relaxing while also studying diligently and thoroughly. He was emotional when he needed to be but an expert in hiding his distress when the situation called for it. He would think logically when a problem arose and work around it like it wasn't even there.

The ANBU had noticed the changes, seeing as day by day he would take all of their more dominant traits and meld them into one personality. It was interesting to them, seeing the change.

The Hokage had noticed it too, but he was fine with it. It had made the kid a better person in his opinion.

* * *

Break

* * *

Today was Naruto's eighth birthday, and the ANBU members all had a surprise for him. All of them had shown up at the same time, and a little while later the Hokage had shown up as well. Seeing that everyone was there, Boar decided to say what the plan was. "Naruto, we have decided between the six of us that we will all take our masks off for you today. That is, with the permission of Hokage-Sama."

Naruto had to think about this. Why did they want to do it now all of a sudden? It was his birthday today, but it wasn't an occasion to reveal something this… monumental… all of a sudden. Ok, maybe he was overthinking it a little, but why not? In the end, he decided to just agree to it. "I would love to meet you all face to face. I know that I met you all already, but this will be a lot different I think." The Hokage nodded at that and turned to the ANBU. "You have my permission, given that Naruto doesn't tell anyone about your identity." Getting a nod from the blond eight year old, Boar mentioned for his squad to start revealing themselves one by one.

First was Mantis, who was the furthest from the left from Naruto's position. He grabbed his mask and pulled it from his face, revealing green eyes and a smooth face with a small nose. You could see that he was still young. "Hey, Naruto. Akagi Atsuhiro's the name. Make sure you don't tell anyone though." He gave Naruto a pointed look, causing the blond to roll his eyes. "Yes... Atsuhiro-nii? That sounds weird. Can I just call you Mantis-nii? Much easier.. Anyway, I won't tell anyone, I promise." Getting a nod from the green haired man, Naruto turned his head to look at the next person, which was Cat.

Pulling off her mask revealed a beautiful face with sparkling orange eyes. Naruto estimated her age to be in the early twenties. Her face had a little bit of a regal look to it. She smiled at the young man, giving him a small wave. "Hello, Naruto-Kun, my name is Hamasaki Manami, pleased to meet you." Once again Naruto rolled his eyes. "I have already known you for a year and a half Nee-san." His fellow blonde giggled at his response, making Naruto smile in return, before looking at the next person expectantly.

Next was Bird, who didn't hesitate to take his mask off and peer his blue eyes into Naruto's, creeping the little boy out. His staring was interrupted though, as Rat punched his arm lightly. "Knock it off Bird; you did that already when you met him the first time." Bird smirked at that. "I know, I still like to do that though, creeps people out. Anyhow, name's Aozora Kaiji. Sorry for creeping you out, I normally do that to new recruits in the ANBU to scare them." Waving it off, Naruto looked at the next person expectantly.

Rat slowly moved her hand to her mask, gripping the edges slowly and slowly taking it off, revealing a pair of big grey eyes peering over the top of the mask before she revealed the rest of her face. She had a pretty face, the only thing out of the ordinary being a long, thin scar along her cheek. "'Sup Naruto. Name is Akiba Sachiko, and don't you forget it!" She said, sticking out her tongue and raising her arm with her hand in a peace sign. Naruto chuckled a little at her introduction, expecting something like this from her.

The next person was Sloth, but he was staring out of the window thinking of other things, so Sachiko had to poke him in the ribs to make him pay attention. "It's your turn lazy ass." Naruto wondered how a person could look so detached from the world as Sloth lazily reached for his mask and pulled it off, revealing half-lidded green eyes and a face that resembled a… sloth… as weird as that sounded. It was slightly round with a bit of a round nose, and his mouth was half opened. It was kind of disturbing to look at, really. "Yo… Moriya Heiwa is what they call me." He said with a small wave before putting his hand back in his pocket. Naruto sighed at him, but wasn't really bothered as this was what he was always like.

Now it was the turn to Boar, the last of the bunch. He grabbed his mask and took it off, revealing hard black eyes and a strong jawline with a couple of scars here and there. It made him look extremely cool as well as experienced to Naruto. "Yamauchi Kento. What do you think Naruto?" asked the man in his normal gruff voice, though there was a hint of happiness in it that wasn't there at the start.

Naruto looked at all of their faces and smiled, causing all of them to smile back. "I think you are the coolest people ever, and I'm honored to know all of your faces. I really am." He said as he stood up and shook the hands of the men while giving the women a hug. "And while I also appreciate knowing your names, I think I am going to keep calling you by your masks. I like it that way, and I won't accidentally mess up and call you by your names in public." He said sheepishly, which got a laugh out of everyone.

The ANBU members saw no harm in that, so they all nodded. The Hokage had been silently watching all of this with a smile on his face, just now deciding to interject. "Now that that is over, who wants cake?"

* * *

Time skip: One year later

* * *

It was a cold autumn evening, rain poured from the heavens and a strong, cold wind blew around the discolored leaves that had fallen from the trees. Scarcely a few people could be seen scurrying along the streets, going home or elsewhere, but certainly in a hurry to have a roof over their head.

One person didn't seem to have this need though. A young blonde boy, couldn't be older than nine or so years, sat on a bench, soaked from the rain. He seemed to be crying, silently sobbing as he mumbled something incomprehensible. A cloaked person appeared beside him, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Naruto-Kun, what are you doing out here? You should be inside!" The figure could be heard saying.

The kid looked up at the bird-masked figure, his eyes widening slightly before he launched himself at them, surprising them quite a bit. "Bird!" He cried out while sobbing into the man's chest. The animal masked man could only hold the child awkwardly as he cried his eyes out. "We should go inside and you can tell me what the matter, ok?" He said as he picked up the child. He had his suspicions, but he would let the boy say it.

Naruto nodded softly as he was picked up, slightly shaking from the cold. "You're so cold, you're shivering! Good god kid, why did you go outside! Anyway, hold on so we can go to my house." He instructed as he positioned his hand in a half-ram sign, vanishing without a trace.

They reappeared inside a room. The room seemed to be inside an apartment, the floor, walls and ceiling furnished with wood, a table standing along the walls under the window, which looked out over the village of Konoha. A kitchen was next to it while a couch and coffee table were at the other side of the "living room". Bird set Naruto down on the couch before disappearing into a door, returning with towels, clothes and a blanket.

He proceeded to take the blonde's clothes off, giving him the fresh, warm ones, and wrapped the blanket around him. He quickly stopped shivering and only a few sniffles could be heard from time to time. "Now kid, tell me what happened." Bird said as he moved to the kitchen to make tea.

Naruto seemed to get a little depressed for a second before answering. "This morning Cat came to my house saying she had a message. She sat me down and we had tea, having a little small talk, you know? But then she seemed really sad for some reason, and… She told me Boar was killed in action…" He had to use all of his willpower to keep in his tears while saying that, but he managed.

He should have seen it coming. Bird knew about the death of Boar, hell, he was there when boar died. The squad had been sent on an assassination mission, the target being a corrupt businessman who had been bribing people to get what he wanted. Konoha had gotten wind of that, and there they were. They had even thought that it was overkill to go in with the five of them, Sloth not being there because it was his turn to guard Naruto.

They had gone there, and Boar had volunteered to go in and do the job, since it was only one guy. That turned out to be a mistake, as he was assaulted by 3 High-A ranked missing ninja. They had tried to save Boar when they saw him get launched through the window, but they had been too late. He was stabbed through the heart before they knew it. They had dispatched of the enemy quick enough, but they had been too late to save Boar.

They had known that Boar had been Naruto's favorite out of all of them. How couldn't they? The two were practically father and son when they were together, and both had talked almost non-stop about the other, with Naruto constantly asking when Boar would come around again.

Sighing heavily, Bird took the tea he prepared and went over to the couch, sitting down and giving Naruto his tea. He set his own cup down and faced the child. "You know, Naruto, I am sad that Boar died, too. But, what I also know is that the ninja life is dangerous, and that we could die at any moment. You know how he died? He died to protect us, his comrades and the village. I respect him a lot for that. It is the ultimate death for us ANBU, you know? Dying so that our comrades may live another day to help the tree that is Konoha thrive. You know what that is called? The Will of Fire." He placed his hand on Naruto's chest, right on his heart. "And you have it too. I can feel it. One day, you will be the one to protect the tree and make it flourish. Hopefully not by dying, but by being strong and striking down our enemies."

A chance could be seen in the crystal blue eyes of the blonde. A fire being lit by the power of Bird's words. Boar had been a father to him, and he would honor the man by fueling his Will of Fire and gain the power to protect the village that Boar loved so much. He was a smart kid though; some would compare him to the Nara minus the laziness, so he knew that he couldn't do that without the proper guidance. Sure, he had entered the academy last summer, but that would not be enough to reach his goals. "Bird-nii, thank you for that, I really needed it. I want to be strong like Boar and defend the village with my own Will of Fire now, but I can't do that by myself, or with the academy's teaching. I don't know why, but it feels like it's too easy, and that it doesn't make me strong er at all." He looked Bird straight in the eyes, looking directly into his soul. "Would you and the others help me with that?"

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Chapter End

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There. Your torture has finally passed.

Next chapter will probably be up over the next couple of days. Don't quote me on that though, I am generally a very busy and active person, so I might just get distracted or swamped get with work.

Future chapters will be longer as well, I just wanted to get the "Intro" part over with.

Now, please leave a review, ask questions through PM and all that…

Cheers,

LethalBlades


	2. Ch 2 Training, Fighting and Exams!

Here it is, installment number two of my first ever story!

Enjoy this chapter, and please review, or shoot me a PM if you have any questions!

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Chapter 2. Training, Fighting and Exams!

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Drops of sweat fell to the floor as Naruto finished the last push up of his morning work-out. Sighing in relief that it was finally over, he grabbed a towel from the table next to him and sat down on the chair, catching his breath.

It had been three long, hard years since the ANBU had started training him, and it showed. His naked upper body showed a fair amount of muscle, some people would call him "ripped", which twitched with every movement. He reminisced the time they had spent training.

Right after he had voiced his request to Bird, the man had discussed it with the team. They had all agreed, so they had proceeded with making plans. The first trouble they had come across was training space. Where could they train that was out of sight but still spacious enough? It had stalled them for a couple of weeks, but in the end Naruto had remembered what his grandfather figure had suggested when he had just gotten his apartment building. They would have to remodel the building to function as a training facility.

Well, calling it a training facility was a bit excessive, but they did change one of the apartments and the basement into an exercise room and a sparring/jutsu testing room respectively. In the exercise room he would do all of his stretches and exercises, ranging from push-ups, pull ups, sit ups, squats and crunches as well as weight training with weights that Boar had left him in his will, much to Naruto's shock.

In the basement though, is where the real magic happened. Rat, who was the best at Fuuinjutsu out of all of them, had fortified the basement with countless seals, ranging from chakra suppressor seals and absorbing seals to absorb any jutsu used and to make sure that no one noticed them, to strengthening seals which helped with keeping the building standing while Naruto was tossed around when training Taijutsu, or containing the blast when they were testing explosive tags.

The masterpiece of the entire collection though, was the Gravity Field Array. This was used to up the gravity in a certain vicinity, making it so people walking in it would get accustomed to the higher gravity and get stronger from it. They had used this sparingly though, as to not hurt Naruto's growth process. Of course, they had needed to knock a few walls for the entire thing to be spacious enough, but that was only a minor detail.

There was one more thing that would throw a minor wrench in their plans: The Academy. He had to go there every weekday for six hours from 8AM until 2PM every day, shaving off a bunch of his training time, but he decided to just train harder in the time he had left, which had great results.

When all of the problems were worked out, finally, all of the ANBU had started out with hammering on the basics of everything. This meant chakra control, the proper way to do physical exercises, chakra control, academics, of which he already had a decent foundation but they added some extra stuff, chakra control, and did I mention chakra control?

Naruto had spent countless hours to reign in the already Jonin level reserves that he possessed, and in the end it bore fruit. They had forced him to finish at least the wall sticking, or tree climbing, exercise before they even started on anything at all, and he had been forced to do the water walking exercise, which had to be done in the tub because of secrecy, before they had started on anything ninjutsu related. It had been a pain, but it had been for the better in the end as it did provide the needed results.

When all of that had finally been completed, they had moved on to the good stuff, while still continuing to hammer the basics and chakra control to keep him focused and his chakra in check.

Taijutsu was taught by Bird, who was the best out of all of them. Strangely, he had only given Naruto basic forms for punches and kicks at the start, telling him to build upon it and create his own thing with what felt natural, only giving pointers if something was easily exploitable.

This turned out to be a great idea, having the young blond see what felt natural to him and making him repeat the movements and practice them in spars. Bird had quickly come to see his strength, which was in his speed and flexibility, and made the boy capitalize on it, building an entirely new style which was customized for him and him alone, which would be better in the long run as Naruto would have the ability to assimilate anything he came up with or saw that could be useful into the style, improving it more and more as time went on.

It was an incredible thing to see, seeing the boy dance along in fluid movements as he assaulted and dodged. Constant sparring would improve him more and more over time. He was nowhere near the skill level and physical ability of Bird, but he had come a long way.

Sloth was his teacher on the topic of tactics and strategy as well as stealth. The man had given Naruto countless scenarios, and told him to solve them, at one time even giving the boy practical assignments, like putting a dummy in a locked room and trapping it as well as having clones on guard. This way, he had unlocked the potential of Naruto's mind, having him analyze the situation thoroughly and think creatively and outside of the box to reach his goal. It gave Naruto a whole new perspective on the lazy man, showing him the man's genius even if he was a bit quirky.

Stealth was also one of Sloth's specialties, and he had told Naruto all the fine details of it, as well as demonstrated it to the boy on numerous occasions, as he scared the poor boy to death by showing up out of nowhere. This, while annoying, lead to Naruto getting more aware of his surroundings, as well as making him more stealthy himself.

It had also lead them to the topic of chakra sensing techniques, which Sloth was all too happy to instruct him in, even though it meant more work and less relaxation time. Now, Naruto could sense people who were in a circumference of about 50 feet around him, and it was growing every day.

Genjutsu had been a tricky one. Because his reserves were so big Rat, the one teaching him this subject as well as Fuuinjutsu, was between a rock and a hard place. He couldn't use the lower ranked ones because his chakra control was just bad, for now, but she couldn't very well teach him high level, high chakra cost Genjutsu either, because those required advanced chakra and Genjutsu theory that he was just not ready for yet. In the end she had decided to just teach him a few area of effect ones and spend the biggest chunk of their time teaching Naruto Fuuinjutsu.

Now, Fuuinjutsu is where Naruto excelled. Rat could not comprehend how one could be so naturally talented at an art as obscure and difficult as this, but it didn't deter her from teaching him all she knew, as well as take books from the ANBU library so he could grow as much as possible. The basics had practically been done in two sessions, and it only started going faster after that. By the time they were done, he was creating his own seals and selling them for profit, as well as creating pet projects of his own. Some of the things he had created had left her stumped, and she was one of the better seal users in ANBU.

Of course, things didn't go entirely without incident, as some seals had blown up violently in his face, but he was unscathed for the most part. Good thing his healing was phenomenal.

On the account of weapons training, Cat as well as Mantis had stepped up to the plate. Mantis had been in charge of his throwing weapons. The boy had quickly picked up on kunai and shuriken, moving on from stationary targets to moving ones before finally going to spread targets, meaning behind, in front and to his sides, forcing him to make maneuvers instead of standing still, and at last he moved on to the moving targets which went all over the place. It was a nifty piece of Fuuinjutsu, courtesy of Rat, that made them stick to the walls and move in random patterns, which was perfect as no attempt would be the same.

When he had finally finished that, though, Mantis had showed him other types of throwing weapons that he could use, and proceeded to drill the boy through each type. It ranged from different types of throwing knives, throwing axes, spears and even chakram were explored. In the end, Naruto only liked the smaller throwing knives more, since they were faster and more silent than the standard kunai knives they were issued. This was due to the fact that kunai could also be applied in hand to hand combat, so they needed to be sturdier.

While Mantis was handling the throwing weapons, Cat was focusing on the hand to hand aspect. They, too, had tried a myriad of different weapons, wanting to make sure that he got to feel out different types, but in the end he had chosen the ninjato. When teaching him how to fight with it, Cat had taken almost the same route as Bird, teaching him the proper ways to hold it and a few ways of slashing and stabbing, as well as a few quick-draw techniques that she thought would fit him.

Not having a set style, Naruto once again had the creative freedom, allowing him to do unconventional moves like kicks and flips into it, while normally they wouldn't be used because most styles focus on a strong base stance where you would keep your feet to the ground for stability. Not having this "restriction" allowed him a free range of movement, and it worked splendidly.

Using either his ninjato or kunai, he would come in from every possible angle and would attack before backing off and trying a different one. If not for Cat's superior skill and experience, she wouldn't even have the time to attack for herself as the Uzumaki was quick on his feet and creative in his ways of approach.

The last topic was Ninjutsu. It had been a bit of a problem to see who would teach him, and what they were going to teach him, but in the end they had devised a plan where everyone would instruct the boy in one element each, but not before teaching him the basic ninjutsu, which would be taken care of by Bird.

It was unconventional to teach someone more than two or three elements, due to the chakra cost of ninjutsu not of your affinity, but they mused that since Naruto had such a large reserve of chakra already, and that it would only continue to grow exponentially over time, that he would be able to do it.

Thus, after learning the academy three as well as the Shunshin, Kage Bunshin, which had been great for his training but not used much, and some other supplementary techniques, they proceeded to teach him elemental manipulation. Wind was taught by Bird, Water was taken care of by Cat, Fire by Rat, Earth was Sloth's territory and finally Lightning was Mantis' responsibility.

When they had finally started out the training, Naruto had taken it like a fish to water, though he did progress faster in some. Wind seemed to be his best element by far, followed by Water, then Wind, Lightning and last was Earth, though he was still proficient in it.

Naruto smiled, thinking about the times spent training in the last three years. It had been one hell of a journey, one that he had not yet finished, but it was one he would never regret. He had been beaten to a pulp, cut, stabbed, burned and electrocuted, but it had been for a good cause, and he had done most of that to himself anyway.

Of course, he hadn't just thrown his social life, if you could consider it that, out of the window. In the academy, which he was forced to attend before being allowed to become a ninja, not that he minded, he had to interact with his classmates every day. He even had people that he would consider his "friends", one being Nara Shikamaru, the class lazy ass as well as genius, which had reminded him of Sloth. Naruto had continuously challenged the Nara to shogi, and they always had good games, so it had become their daily routine during lunch.

His other friend was a girl. Her name was Mitsue Hikari, and she was a light skinned girl with long brown hair and green eyes, who in personality reminded him a bit of Rat, always up for a joke or prank but overall very kind and determined. She had just sat down to watch him and Shikamaru play shogi one day, and they had talked. She had slowly melded into their little routine, and the trio could always be found together at the academy, and sometimes even hanging out on Sundays, which was Naruto's resting day.

Naruto really hoped that he would be teamed up with the both of them when they graduated in about 4 months. He liked them much better than the others in their class.

He wouldn't be hanging out with them or any of that stuff today though, as he remembered what day it was today. Today would be the day on which he would finally present his prototype weapon blueprints to the blacksmith that the ANBU had shown him. It had been about 2 years into his training when he had been required to have weapons at the academy, and they had led him to this obscure blacksmith that mainly only ANBU use with a few exceptions. The man made top quality weapons and armor, so Naruto would check with the man if he would help him with it.

The weapon in question was an "L" shaped metal device, which had a hole going all the way through the longer side, while having a padded grip on the shorter end. There would be multiple seals inscribed into the "barrel" as he had named it, which was the hole, that would compress any chakra pumped into it into a small, condensed ball in the "chamber" which was a compartment at the end of the barrel, and then there was seal at the back of the chamber which was the "Propulsion Seal" which would use stored chakra to fire the small chakra ball to the target.

It was all theoretical stuff, and he still needed to make the prototype, but if it worked it would be revolutionary. Though, with the predicted chakra cost that he and Sloth had calculated, only he and anyone with at least Kage level chakra would be able to use it effectively, as it would take the chakra equivalent of a high-power A-rank jutsu to only make the ball and create a shell around it so it wouldn't dissipate after about 5 feet.

It was still a crafty invention though, and it would be his trademark weapon when he made a name for himself. Well, this and a bigger one which was still in development. He would carry two and kick ass! That was the plan anyway. He still needed to test if it worked.

He remembered when he got the idea for the project. He was always annoyed when he ran out of kunai, shuriken or throwing knives, and one day he was fed up, so he set out to create something where he didn't need to retrieve the stupid weapons. Of course he didn't know where to start, so he hadn't come up with anything solid until his sensei had started him on the elemental bullet techniques. He didn't know why, but this had sparked his inspiration, and with the help of Mantis and Sloth it had turned into this.

He had extensively researched what metals to use and had worked countless hours on the seals so that they would work. Now he finally had the finished blueprints, about 99% sure that it would work.

So, giddy with excitement, he went back to his apartment from the exercise room, which is where he was before, and took a quick shower before putting on his attire, which consisted of a white t-shirt with a red swirl on the front, a black hooded vest with white lines and black cargo pants with black boots with white laces, and picked up his blueprints before rushing out of the door.

Walking casually through the village, taking a few back alleyways and lesser-known streets to avoid the general populace, who still hated him, and made his way to the merchant district, before taking one last passage between two buildings, which led to a small building behind it. It was well hidden, and most people would miss it if they didn't know it was there. Perfect for people who wanted to stay out of sight.

He walked up to the heavy-looking wooden door that served as an entrance and pushed it open with a little force, making his way into the small shop. After looking around for a while, he didn't see the shopkeeper so he went to the counter and waited for a while, pulsing his chakra a little to see if he could feel the man, but was surprised when his chakra bounced back from the walls. This man had seals up to prevent people from using ninja techniques it seems. Distracted by the seals, he didn't hear a person enter the room. "Why hello young Naruto, what can I help you with today?"

The blond quickly turned around, a little surprised by the deep voice talking to him. He relaxed though, as he recognized the old man who owned the place. The man was really, really big, almost 7 feet with long grey hair and a full blown beard. He wore a leather apron with a shirt that used to be white, but was now almost black from all of the soot, and black pants.

"Oh hey Kenta-San, I didn't hear you come in." Naruto replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "I can see that!" The big man replied, chuckling at the blond. "Shut up! Now, I came here for a reason. I want you to check out these blueprints to see if you can manage this?" Naruto said as he rolled the blueprints out, waving the man over to have a look.

Kenta inspected them thoroughly, looking at every calculation as well as the design of the thing. It had a few separate parts that would click together, so it would be easier to apply the seals. He would be able to manage it. Looking at the blond, he stroked his beard while answering. "Hmm… I can manage this, definitely, but some of the metal used in this is hard to get, and the seals are pretty complex, so it will cost you a lot to get this made. Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Naruto nodded. He had saved up a lot of money, especially after he started selling the seals he had created. The anti-rape seal had been a crowd favorite, and so where the security seals that he had devised. Crime had gone down by a lot after he had brought those out. "Yes, I even want to commission two if that is not a problem. I definitely have enough money, and I could even apply the seals myself if you don't have the expertise. They are very complicated after all." He smirked at the man.

The old blacksmith ignored the jab and went behind the counter, taking out a form, which he filled out quickly, giving it to Naruto. "This is the contract for custom orders, the price is still undecided as I will have to import some of the ores, but that will be taken care of later. I just need your signature and I need you to put a little chakra into the seal on the bottom." He instructed as he picked up the blueprint and took it out back, before returning and taking the signed contract from Naruto. "Now, brat, you can go. I will have my work cut out for me it seems…" The man muttered. Naruto took the hint and left. He would return in a couple of weeks to pick them up.

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Break

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When he heard that his creations were finally finished, Naruto had been ecstatic. He went to pick them up from Kenta's shop as soon as he heard and took them home to "the basement" to test them out. Opening the case that they came in, Naruto couldn't help but be in awe of the masterful crafting that Kenta had made. There were a few changes to the overall design, but it was for the better.

The base was made out of a rare alloy from iron country that he couldn't remember the name of that was stronger than the steel that normal weapons were made of, as well as able to conduct chakra which was needed for the seals to work properly. It was shiny and a really dark grey color. Then there was the rubber grip which had extra traction pads attached which would be comfortable in his palm while still providing a good grip so he wouldn't have it slip out of his hands randomly. On the top there was a slide part so that he could remove it and check the seals that had been imprinted in the metal and filled with chakra conductive material that hardened, so that it would be durable.

He was giddy to test out the masterpieces, but first he would have to fill the propulsion seal at the back of the chamber. Once that was done he put the slide back on and it should be ready to go. Charging regular non-elemental chakra into the seal on the grip, under the palm of his hands, he aimed at one of the targets set up in anticipation of this, and pulsed chakra into the propulsion seal, causing the chakra "bullet" to fly towards the target.

Awaiting in suspense, he looked at the glowing blue projectile and saw it slam into the target… and it just disintegrated. "Fuck!" Was the first thing coming out of his mouth as he looked at the target. He was confused. The calculations said that it should at least have dented the target.

He walked up to the target he had just fired at and inspected it. Scanning the surface for anything out of the ordinary, he finally spotted a tiny little dent in the surface. "Well, this was not a complete failure after all then. More power should make it do more damage." He nodded to himself as he took his stance again, creating a bullet before pushing more power than before into the propulsion seal. "Here we go!" He shouted as he released the chakra in the propulsion seal, creating a little bang at the end of the barrel and not even having the time to lower the weapon before a big dent appeared in the target, going as far as half of the thickness of the thing.

Naruto once again walked up to the target and inspected it thoroughly. "Well, that should do I think." He said, before chuckling a little.

He would have fun experimenting with this.

* * *

Break

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Over the course of the next four months, Naruto had been experimenting with his new "Chakra Guns" as he had dubbed them, liking the sound of that.

One of the things he did was pushing elemental chakra into the bullets to study the effects, and to see if it could be used. And in the end he was happy to find that it could.

Every element gave the projectiles different properties. Fire would have the same force as the normal bullet and combusted on impact to set the target on fire. Water and Earth would do practically the same thing as the other, that being adding more force to the bullet on impact while being a bit slower than the other bullets. Lightning would pierce the target instead of dent and was faster than the other projectiles, and lastly wind would create slashes around the area of impact with about half the force of the chakra bullet.

Naruto had tested the effects on his clones, and he regretted that a bit, but it had also made him think about what he would be doing to other people if he used this device. The implications kind of scared the Uzumaki, since he didn't really want to abuse these abilities on others because of their brutality. He had experienced them himself for a brief period before the clones dispersed. Breaking people's bones with a single bullet, or setting them on fire leading to a horrible death? It was a horrid thought and feeling.

Anyway, he was going to use every tool at his disposal to strike down the enemies of Konoha, and be strong like Boar would have wanted him to do.

What he also did, besides creating horrible ways to kill people, was practicing so he could do it quickly and accurately. He had spent countless hours into perfecting his execution of the creation as well as the process of firing the bullet, as well as refining his accuracy and making sure that he could hit moving targets and such. It had been a difficult process, as the bullets all moved at different speeds, so he had to get used to each individual bullet, and then he needed to get accustomed to firing them in random order and still hit the targets so that he wouldn't accidentally miss because he was still thinking of firing an earth bullet and then trying to fire a lightning bullet while leading too far…

It was infuriating, but he had made it, and now he was at least proficient enough to hit about half of the targets accurately.

Right now though, it was time for the academy exam. He was looking forward to being out of that stuffy old classroom, but he would miss the time he spent there, and of course the ANBU that had guarded him. That's right, after graduation the ANBU wouldn't be around anymore. Well, at least to guard him. They would still be alive of course.

He would miss training with them immensely, but he knew that they couldn't stick around forever. He would just have to join them in the ANBU as soon as possible he supposed, or meet with them occasionally if they came out of ANBU. Anyhow, he would see them again, and that was a nice thought.

Stepping onto the Academy grounds, having avoided the main stream of people on the way there, he walked through the entrance and made his way to the classroom. He opened the door and had a look around, seeing that he was the first one there, bar the teacher of course. Iruka-Sensei was always there way early in the morning to look through papers. He didn't know where all of those came from though, they didn't do that much work.

Shaking his head at the random thoughts, Naruto made his way to the back of the class after saying a quiet hello to Iruka, and sat down on the back row, leaning against the wall in the corner. This is where he always liked to sit. Hikari and Shikamaru would both sit on the adjacent seats and function as a bit of a buffer against the normally rowdy class of students. He really didn't see how people could be this hyperactive early in the morning, but then again he knew Rat and she was an early riser.

Deciding not to dwell on that too much, he patiently waited for the exam to start, pulling out a novel he had been reading that he was interested in. It was called "The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja" and it appealed to him, though he didn't know why. He liked the idealist main protagonist though. It was kind of refreshing compared to his normal mindset.

So absorbed in his reading material, he didn't really pay attention when the other students were entering, and he almost pulled out a kunai and attacked Hikari when she shook him to get him to pay attention to her. "Naruto! Geez, you were really focused on that book. I know you like reading, but this is ridiculous!"

Naruto had the decency to look sheepish as he put his book away, apologizing profusely to his friend, who looked quite annoyed. When he was done with that though, he looked around the class, which was almost full, missing just a few students. "Good morning Hikari-Chan. Did you actually have a good morning?" the blond asked casually.

The girl in question was taken back a bit by the way he said that, but she went with the flow anyway. Naruto was weird like that. "I had a good morning, thank you. Anyway, who do you think are going to pass?" She asked rapidly, surprising Naruto a bit. Where had her manners gone? No 'Did you have a good morning as well?'? He sighed, and decided to just answer her question.

"Honestly? I think the Uchiha will probably top of the class, the others would probably you, me and Shika, Choji, Shino, Hinata, Kiba and as much as it pains me to say it, Haruno and Yamanaka." He really didn't like the two. They were both rabid Uchiha fangirls, and while he respected the Yamanaka clan, that girl was a disgrace to their name if he had anything to say about it. Not that he would say any of that out loud, because he would be lynched by the Yamanaka clan head before he could blink. "Oh, and I forgot Shiro and Yuu." He added as an afterthought. Those two were pretty mysterious. Yuu more so than Shiro.

Yuu, no last name, had appeared about a year ago. He had black straight hair and darker than black eyes, standing about the height of 5 feet 5 inches, and was as mysterious as they come. No-one knew where he came from, no-one knows where he lives, and his grades are bottom of the class, even though Naruto suspected him to be more capable… The blonde's paranoid mind was just a bit short from ringing alarm bells.

Shiro, on the other hand, was a little less suspicious. He was a guy standing at about 5 feet7 inches, and had a brown mop of hair on his head, his equally brown eyes just about peeking from under his hair. He was a relaxed dude, his grades even more average than Naruto's, and the blond Uzumaki had made his grades as average as possible on purpose. Of course, Naruto had put a little variety in his grades as to not ring any bells, but it seems like this dude was not even trying. He just couldn't physically be anything other than perfectly average.

He nodded at his own assessment. He would have to keep an eye on Yuu, he seemed a little fishy. Hikari was also nodding her head, agreeing with Naruto's choices for graduates, though she was of the opinion that he had missed some people. Knowing Naruto though, he had just called out the people that he found interesting or, in the case of Yamanaka and Haruno, was almost disgusted at their chances of passing.

The girl was pulled from her thoughts though, as Iruka seemed to be starting class. "Alright boys and girls, listen up!" He shouted, shifting the attention of the class to him for the most part. He couldn't be bothered to use his signature jutsu today, so he decided to just start. They couldn't be ninja if they couldn't pay attention in his book.

"Now, we will start out with a written test, followed by the Taijutsu portion, the weapon throwing portion, and lastly the Ninjutsu portion. Does anyone have any questions? No? Then we will proceed with the written tests when Mizuki-Sensei decides to show up with the test papers…" He said the last part in annoyance, his face in a clear scowl as he didn't like tardy people.

It didn't last long though, as Mizuki entered the classroom, carrying quite a large stack of papers. "Sorry that I was late, but they didn't come back from the press until this morning and even then they had to dry still, so I had to stand there with a paper fan for an hour waving at the bloody things…" He mumbled at Iruka, but then he noticed that the students were there. "My apologies for my language." He added, before starting going around the classroom, handing the test papers to everybody.

"Now, you will all have an hour to complete this, so don't rush it and take your time. You should be fine if you studied and paid attention in class." He said, eyeing a few people who never paid attention, which caused said people to bow down their heads, regretting that decision.

After that though, there was silence, only broken by the scratching of pencils on paper and cries of despair as a few students noticed that they didn't know any of the answers. In Iruka's opinion it was all of their own faults. They should have studied like he had told them a million times before.

After the hour was up, he went around the class to collect the papers, placing them on his desk after he was done. "Now that that is over, you can all follow Mizuki to the training field." Iruka announced. Chairs could be heard scraping on the floor as the students followed the white haired man, most of them chatting with their friends.

When they arrived at the Academy training field, Iruka also arrived in a Shunshin, ready to administer the Taijutsu part of the exam. "Students, now it is time for the Taijutsu exam. You will all be fighting Mizuki, and you will be graded for your technique as well as your physical abilities, so make sure you are stretched and all that. Now, I will call all of your names one-by-one in alphabetical order by last name." Getting a chorus of "Hai!" from the students, Mizuki moved to the center of the field while Iruka called out the students' names.

Naruto was quite disinterested in this entire ordeal. Of course he encouraged his friends and congratulated them when they passed, but he didn't really feel too inclined to pay attention to any of the students. He had been able to study everyone's fighting styles for years after all. He didn't even look interested when he had to fight himself, practically fighting on autopilot as he waited for Iruka to call the fight when he had fulfilled the requirements. He didn't even register when his friends congratulated him on passing this portion.

It was the same when they continued to the weapon test. He vaguely noticed that Iruka gave an explanation, something about 5 kunai and 5 shuriken, but the rest of it was swiftly ignored in favor of what ramen he was going to eat that night. That is, until he was punched by Hikari. "Naruto! It is your turn you dumbass!" She shouted at him. For the second time that day, Naruto rubbed his head while laughing sheepishly, apologizing profusely while walking up to the spot, taking the throwing weapons and carefully weighing them in his hands. They were a bit light compared to the kunai and shuriken that he would normally use, but they would do for this test.

Only looking once at the targets, he took the shuriken in one hand while taking the kunai in the other, throwing them at the same time and hitting all of the targets. He turned around to see all of the students and Iruka look stumped. He face palmed immediately. He had shown too much. It was too late to take that all back now though, so he put on his neutral face again as he casually walked to his friends, who were too surprised to say anything, though it could be that Shikamaru was just too lazy to.

Since he was one of the last names on the list, the rest was quickly taken care of before they moved back to the classroom. Sitting all of the students down, Iruka explained once again. "Ok students, now it is time for the Ninjutsu portion. Mizuki and I will both be in the other room. I will call you inside when it is your turn, and you will perform the three jutsu that we have practiced in class. Any questions?"

No one raised their hand, so Iruka called in the first name on the list and left. It was such a pain, having a last name starting with U. couldn't he have gotten a name starting with something a bit earlier in the alphabet? Was that so much to ask for?

Getting no answer from whomever he had asked that question to, he just gave up and decided to strike up conversation with his friends. So, Shika, what do you think the teams will be? I have a pretty good idea on who will be teamed together myself, but I am curious about what you think." He asked the Nara casually.

Shikamaru seemed deeply in thought for a second before speaking his thoughts. "Troublesome. The girl and guy on top of the class will be teamed together with the dead last, as that is tradition, so it will be Uchiha, Haruno and Yuu. Then there will be the Hyuuga, Inuzuka and the Aburame, who will be a tracking team. They will probably put me together with Choji and Ino, even though it will be a drag, and that just leaves you, Hikari and Shiro. They might put the three of us together and put Shiro with Ino and Choji, too, but I doubt that they want to disrupt the Ino-Shika-Cho." He speculated, Naruto nodding with him.

Hikari was also listening from the side, and she couldn't help but agree. Shika was always spot on, so was Naruto. When they both agreed on something, it was almost bound to happen.

As time ticked on, more and more students passed or failed, their turn coming closer and closer. When Naruto was finally called, his friends having passed already, he went to Iruka so fast that it almost looked like he teleported, stunning Iruka for a second before he recovered and ushered Naruto into the adjacent classroom. Once there, Iruka asked Naruto to do the three academy jutsu, which he proceeded to perform perfectly, earning him a headband. "Congratulations, Naruto. You are now a shinobi of Konoha, upholding the Will of Fire. Do your village proud."

Naruto nodded at the Academy teacher, smiling at the man. Iruka had looked at Naruto hatefully at the beginning, but had soon come to see that he was not the fox, and the blond was grateful for it. Mizuki, though, was a different matter. The man glared at him hatefully every chance he got. He was expecting sabotage from the white haired man, but it seemed he had been a little too paranoid.

Walking back to the original classroom followed by Iruka, he walked back to his friends and sat down, smiling as his friends congratulated him on passing. "Was I ever in doubt?" He asked jokingly as he pulled out his book again, waiting for all of this to be over.

It only took a few minutes before everyone was tested and Iruka addressed them again. "Everyone, good job on passing for the ones that did, I will see you in this classroom in a week for the team assignments. You will be sent the details about your shinobi license at home. For those of you who didn't pass, I expect you to be here for the start of the new school year. You are all dismissed!"

Everyone stood up to leave, funneling into the hallway and outside. Naruto was silently walking besides his friends, enjoying the slight breeze that was present under the afternoon sun. "Hey guys," he said to his friends, getting their attention. "How about a few bowls of ramen to celebrate our graduation?"

Both of his friends seemed to contemplate this for a few moments, before they both agreed. "Great, I will see you at Ichiraku's in a few minutes, I will have to get some stuff from my apartment." He said, his friends nodding as he left.

* * *

Break

* * *

When Naruto arrived at Ichiraku Ramen, he took a stool next to Hikari, slightly startling her. "Naruto, would you stop scaring my like that? You keep doing that stuff." She said to him as she looked him over. There was something different about him, she mused as she kept looking for what it could be.

He wasn't wearing any different clothes. That much she could tell. He had a sword on his back, and he seemed to be wearing two weird L shaped metal things in holsters on his hips… Wait a second! But before she could say anything, Shikamaru beat her to the punch. "Say, Naruto, why do you suddenly have a sword on your back? And what are those metal things in the holsters?"

Naruto chuckled and put his hand on the hilt of his ninjato, slowly pulling it out of its sheath. It had a black grip and a silver blade, glistering in the light of the sun. "Well, you see, since we have now graduated, I was going to tell you guys a little more about myself, since I have kept a lot of things a secret for you guys for a very long time."

His friends looked at him curiously now, waiting for him to continue on. In the meantime, Naruto was pulsing out chakra, making sure that no one was listening in on them. "Ok, so, I haven't shown all of my skills in the Academy, which I suspect Shika already knew." Getting a nod from the Nara he went on with his explanation. "All I can say about it, is that I have been trained by a few people outside of the Academy. In class I always made sure to have as average grades as possible, holding back in my theoretical knowledge and my Taijutsu to seem like an average student so people wouldn't get suspicious. I am trained in every shinobi art, that being Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Fuuinjutsu, as well as Kenjutsu and throwing weapons. This sword" He put it on the counter. "I can use it. These things-" He pulled out his Chakra Guns and put them on the counter as well. "- I designed myself. With the help of seals I can shoot high-powered chakra projectiles. Pretty neat huh?"

His friends nodded dumbly. Even though Shikamaru had known that Naruto was hiding some of his skills, he didn't know that it was this extensive. "And I am sorry for deceiving you," Naruto continued "But it was all necessary. What I wanted to tell you, is that-" He was cut off when he felt someone enter his senses. It was getting dark, but he could vaguely see a figure hopping on the rooftops with a big scroll on his back. The silhouette looked vaguely like… Mizuki!

He turned to his friends "Hikari-Chan, Shika, Mizuki looks to be on his way out of the village, and he seems to be having a scroll on his back. I think that we should tail him and see what he is up to. That man has been acting suspicious all week." He said to them as he kept pulsing his chakra, keeping close track on Mizuki. Hikari raised her eyebrow at the sudden weird behavior of her blond friend, but once again she was cut off before she could say a word. Damn Shikamaru!

"So you noticed it too, huh? He has been increasingly skittish, and that excuse from this morning… It was just off. Why would the presses only have it done in the morning? And where would he have found the time to do all of that when it was 8 AM when we had to attend the academy…" He pointed out to Hikari when she looked confused at what they were talking about.

Naruto was starting to lose track of Mizuki, which meant they were running out of time, so Naruto wanted to make it quick. "I am going to follow him, are you with me or not?" He asked impatiently as the white haired academy teacher neared the edge of his sensing area. Seeing the urgency on Naruto's face, both of his friends quickly agreed to come with, following the blond as he took off to the rooftops.

* * *

Break

* * *

Iruka was having a splendid day until now. He had passed the majority of his students in the afternoon, and he had been reviewing the tests again, having had a clone do it before he wanted to have a look at them himself, to see if he had made any mistakes.

Then, a knock on the door had come, and when he opened the door, there had been a random Chuunin that had said the scroll of seals had been stolen, and that it was Mizuki who had done it. He couldn't fathom why the white haired man had done it, though he had been suspicious of the man for the last week.

Jumping along the rooftops, Iruka went towards the forests on the outskirts of the village, in search of the rogue Chuunin teacher. He was going full speed, moving towards his assigned sector, when he spotted a trio of figures in the distance. Going closer, he noticed that it was Naruto and his friends. "Naruto, Hikari, Shikamaru! What are you three doing here?" he asked quickly.

Naruto, who had sensed the man coming, answered just as quickly. "We are chasing Mizuki-Sensei, as he was acting suspicious all week, and now he was jumping through the village at full speed. We were going to check out what he was doing and apprehend him if he did something illegal. Judging from your reaction, we hit the nail on the head, so I will continue tracking him, and you can follow so we can stop him." Naruto suggested. He didn't even look at Iruka's nod before taking off at speeds that were hard to keep up to for the Genin. "Naruto, slow down! Hikari and Shikamaru can't keep up!" the Chuunin teacher shouted at the blond, causing him to slow down to more manageable speeds. They were still closing in on the white haired man quickly, and reached him in a minute or so.

Having the man in his field of view, Naruto tried to grab one of his guns from the holster, but was surprised when he didn't feel it in there. Looking down, he almost screamed at his own stupidity. He had forgotten his guns and his sword at the ramen stand. Seeing no alternative, he made a mad dash for the Chuunin, kicking him in the back of the head forcefully, causing said man to stumble and fall on his face a few feet ahead.

He quickly jumped up and looked around, finally seeing the blond who was looking at the man, ready for any tricks the Chuunin had up his sleeves. "Well well Mizuki, I didn't know you were the traitor type." Naruto said casually as he looked the man in the eye, freaking him out a bit. "What is it to you, demon?" the man said, just as Iruka, Hikari and Shikamaru arrive. "Demon? What is he talking about Naruto?" Shikamaru asked curiously, not seeing how the blond was a demon of any kind, though the whisker marks were a bit odd.

"I will tell you later guys, for now I need you to stay back as I apprehend Mizuki. That means you too, Iruka-Sensei." He added, seeing the Chuunin teacher step forward. The dolphin man was about to protest, but Naruto cut him off. "I know what you are going to say. 'You have just graduated the academy, how could you defeat a Chuunin', right? Well, I am no ordinary Genin. Let me demonstrate." He said as Iruka looked at him dumbfounded, begrudgingly stepping back and letting Naruto take the wheel.

"Now, as for you Mizuki, I am very disappointed in your lack of knowledge in the ninja arts, as well as the fact that you think so little of your fellow Konoha shinobi. Shame on you." He said condescendingly, as he moved into a loose stance, not having a set one for his personal Taijutsu. "Bring it on, demon!" Mizuki shouted as he took out a sealing scroll, unsealing a windmill shuriken. "Take this!" He roared as he spun it on his hand before throwing it at the blond Uzumaki at high speeds.

"Nice try! Futon: Great Breakthrough!" Naruto shouted as he formed a few hand seals and putting his fingers to his lips, blowing out a tremendous amount of wind to knock down the shuriken, subsequently blowing away Mizuki, which he capitalized on, taking off quickly and planting a knee in the man's solar plexus, making Mizuki cough out blood.

Iruka as well as the genin were frozen in place. Naruto was actually beating Mizuki! The man was a Chuunin while Naruto had just graduated. This had to be a Genjutsu. Trying to dispel it would be futile though, as there was no Genjutsu. This was all real!

Naruto grabbed Mizuki by his hair and brought the man's head down on his knee, hearing a crack as the man's cartilage broke, and tossed him away. Mizuki coughed and groaned loudly, before getting up to his feet, wobbling a little as he was still dizzy from the knee to the face. When he finally gained his bearings, he sent Naruto the darkest look he could manage before snarling at the blond. "You will pay for that! I will kill you with my new power, demon!"

He grabbed his flak jacket and pulled it off, quickly followed by his shirt, and exposing a mark on his neck. It consisted of three marks shaped like hooks, arranged in a circular pattern. "Behold, the power bestowed on me by Orochimaru-Sama!" He shouted as the marks started multiply and spread out, covering the entirety of his body and turning his eyes a sickly yellow.

Not saying another word, he took off towards Naruto at double the speed he could before, surprising the blond and kicking said blond in the face. The force behind the kick was phenomenal, and Naruto was sure he could feel his cheekbones crack a little as he was launched into the forest, crashing through a tree before coming to a stop at the next one. He groaned loudly as he slid down the tree. He would not be able to fight until he could heal up a bit. Hikari didn't hesitate to sprint towards her downed friend, examining him for external wounds, of which he seemed to have none, fortunately.

This left Iruka and Shikamaru to face Mizuki. "Troublesome." Was the only thing that Shikamaru had to say as he extended his shadow to the rogue Chuunin, trying to distract said man so that Iruka could think of a solution.

Iruka didn't have to think long as he spotted the windmill shuriken embedded into the ground a little ways away, and thought of a plan where he could use that to his advantage. The dolphin man grabbed a few normal shuriken out of his pouch and launched them at the madman before dashing towards the windmill shuriken.

Mizuki could see what Iruka was doing, and he was not amused, so he jumped away from Shikamaru's shadow another time, and made a mad dash to intercept Iruka, appearing before the man and performing a roundhouse kick, making Iruka jump backwards. Mizuki didn't give him time to rest though, as dashed at Iruka, going for a high kick, which Iruka blocked.

Taking advantage of the leverage he now had though, Mizuki pushed off Iruka's blocking arms, and jumped behind the man, kicking him in the back. Iruka had no time at all to react, and thus got launched face-first into a tree, seeing stars from the impact.

Mizuki laughed menacingly as he walked towards the downed man, picking up the windmill shuriken along the way. He was about to raise the weapon up and bring it down on Iruka, killing him, but he suddenly felt a resistance in his movement. "Shadow Possession Jutsu complete." Shikamaru announced as he took control of Mizuki's movements. He was about to use the windmill shuriken to have the man kill himself, but was shocked when he couldn't, or rather, Mizuki had broken out of his Jutsu. He was too shocked to react as Mizuki punched the boy in the jaw, knocking him to the ground.

"You will die first for trying to prevent me from killing Iruka, brat. You should feel honored." He brought the windmill shuriken up once again, and brought it down on the boy. Hikari screamed out in terror as she saw Mizuki about to kill Shikamaru, but was once again shocked as he was stopped once again, this time by… Naruto?

She looked besides her, but quickly found that Naruto was not next to her, which explained him being there stopping Mizuki. "I have enough of you trying to kill my friends, Mizuki. I think I will just end it now." Naruto announced before bringing his fist down on the back of Mizuki's head, knocking him out and giving Naruto ample opportunity to place several paralysis seals on him. "Now, Cat-nee, would you be so kind to take Mizuki here to the T&I department?" Naruto said as the Cat-masked female dropped from the trees, taking Mizuki's body and waving at Naruto, before disappearing in a Shunshin.

"Well, I am happy that this is over." Naruto chuckled as he saw Hikari walk up to him, giving him a hug. Breaking away from the hug, she looked around. "I think we should get these two to the hospital…" she muttered. Naruto agreed with her. "Yes, let's do that, and report to the Hokage after. He will want to hear what we have to say."

Hikari could only agree, slinging Shikamaru's arm over her shoulder.

* * *

Break

* * *

They had gone to the hospital, and after a little fixing here and there, everyone was cleared, so they all went to the Hokage to report. Naruto grabbed everyone and performed a Shunshin, transporting them to the door to the Hokage Tower. Entering inside, they made a straight line for the stairs and went up them, arriving at the Hokage office. Naruto knocked on the door, and after hearing a faint "come in" he opened it, everyone going inside before he closed it.

Sarutobi looked at them all with a calculating gaze, meeting Naruto in an eye-lock for several seconds before sighing a little. He was too old for this shit. "I am glad that you all came out of that unharmed." He started, but he was cut off by Naruto. "My apologies for my interruption Hokage-Sama, but we are all tired and I request that we don't beat around the bush." He said bluntly, surprising everyone immensely, but drawing a chuckle out of the old Hokage. "Very well, Naruto-Kun, I shall make it quick. I have heard the report from what Cat has seen, but I want your full account on what happened."

That is what they did. They told everything to the Hokage in detail, from the point where they had confronted Mizuki and the man had called Naruto a demon, to the point where the man had shown them the mark and had revealed that he worked for Orochimaru, and finishing with how they had finally defeated the man.

"That is quite the tale. I have to say I am surprised that Mizuki of all people worked for Orochimaru. Anyway, Naruto I think you have a bit of explaining to do about where you got those skills." The Hokage demanded.

Naruto sighed in annoyance, but he complied anyway. "I will do that Hokage-Sama, but at the same time I also want to tell my friends about my… predicament… if you would give your permission." The Hokage nodded, urging Naruto on to start explaining. So he did.

He told his friends how the fox had been sealed at his birth, and how he had been shunned because of it. It had amazed his friends how he could be so strong, and there was not one ounce of hate from them, which relieved him immensely.

After that rather emotional moment, he proceeded to tell them about how he had been raised by ANBU after he had been kicked out of the orphanage. Then he told them that he had broken down after one of them had died, and that he had asked his caretakers to train him in the shinobi arts.

"And that is where I got my skills, Jii-Sama." He finished his tale. It had taken him a while to say it all, but he had done it. "Just as I expected, though I didn't think it would take the death of Boar to have them train you." The Hokage said to the surprise of Naruto. "So you have known about this all this time, huh?" the blond chuckled. He should have known.

"Yes. Now, I believe that you are all exhausted, so I will dismiss you now, and I expect a written report for your first B-rank on my desk somewhere this week. Is that understood? Yes? Good. Dismissed!" The Hokage commanded, seeing the Genin and Chuunin stumble out of the office tiredly.

He could faintly hear "Fuck, my weapons!" from outside his window, making him chuckle a little.

The future looked bright.

* * *

Chapter End.

* * *

Thanks for reading chapter 2 of Naruto: Sharpshooter!

I will have a poll on my profile, for anyone who is interested, and it includes the following things:

Would you rather have Shikamaru on a team with Naruto and Hikari, as I have made them best friends (Shikamaru is my favourite character in the rookie 9 by far (besides Naruto that is)) Or should I just have good ol' Shika in the Ino-Shika-Cho? I don't see Naruto as a viable option in any of the existing teams as he is now, since he was in the middle of the class which means he can't be in the team with Sasuke and Sakura (as I explained in the chapter, that is what Yuu is for) and I don't see him exchanged for any member of Team 8. I made Hikari to be in his team at all times, now it will be up to you if it will be Shika or Shiro joining them.

If any of you would consider voting on the poll that would be appreciated!

Also, I might be pairing Hikari to Naruto, but since I initially planned to have no romance at all I am still a bit on the fence about that. If and I mean if I do it it won't be for several chapters though, so I might put up a poll about that at a later date.

Anyway, I think I have said enough for now, and I will leave you guys and gals to it!

Cheers,

LethalBlades.


	3. Ch 3 Genin and Family

Hello everyone, it's been a long time.

I think I might have given you all unrealistic expectations, uploading chapter 2 only about 2 days after the first one, but I am going to have to disappoint and say that the time I took to write this chapter is probably a more realistic timeframe. Well, maybe slightly less, but you get the point I hope.

Have fun reading, will see you at the other side!

* * *

Chapter 3: Genin and Family.

* * *

The week before the team assignments had to have been the most boring week in his life, Naruto mused as he sat down on his usual chair in the back of the classroom. Sure, some stuff happened, but this was his first week where he didn't have his ANBU caretakers with him, so he didn't really have much of a distraction other than hanging out with his friends, reading and getting his shinobi ID sorted. Of course, he loved going out with his friends and reading, but it just wasn't the same without his surrogate family.

Getting his shinobi ID had gone without a hitch, if you didn't count the annoyance that was the grandson of the Hokage. The brat had barged in while he and the old man were talking, and the boy had the gall to falsely accuse him of tripping him up. And then, when Naruto had excused himself to get out of that mess, the twit had followed him out! It wasn't that much of a challenge to lose the little gnome, but it had annoyed him quite a lot anyway.

Shaking his head to get rid of those memories, he focused back in to what was happening around him. When he had arrived there already were some people there, and it seemed that most of the other students had arrived while he was spaced out. He really had to get rid of that daydreaming habit; it could get him killed someday.

Looking around the class, he spotted all of the people he had mentioned to Hikari yesterday, along with a few others that he hadn't. It wouldn't matter though, as they would fail their actual Genin test. He had studied up on all of the rules and regulations as well as trials for the shinobi that he had to complete, and he had found that there was always a second test applied. It hadn't surprised him, as he had found the Academy curriculum too easy, but it would surprise a lot of people.

Looking besides him, he smiled at his friends, who had probably arrived while he was daydreaming, before focusing on the front of the class where Iruka had entered, and was now sitting behind the desk, his feet propped up on it. The dolphin man looked around the room once, checking with his papers for a moment before nodding and standing up, gathering the attention of the Genin gathered.

"Alright kids, listen up!" He shouted, looking everyone in the eye before starting his speech. "Now that I have gathered everyone's attention, good morning to you all, nice to have you here at your last day in the academy for at least a while." He chuckled a bit at the confused faces before continuing. "You have all done well to graduate, and I wish you all luck in the field. There will be countless life or death situations, and you may have to give your life for the village, but-" he added as he saw the fear in some "If you train hard and look underneath the underneath, as one lazy Jonin would say, you will all be just fine. If you carry the Will of Fire in your veins, you will always be protected by the spirit of the tree that is Konoha." Iruka preached passionately, seeing the fire return in most of the Genin. "Now that that is over, let's continue to the team assignments, shall we?"

He could feel the excitement bubble in the young ninja, and he couldn't blame them. He had been the same not so long ago after all. "Alright, as you all know you will be divided into teams of three with a Jonin sensei who is going to guide you and teach you to further your careers. I will call out your team number and names, and I will leave the Jonin to introduce themselves. Is that clear?"

He didn't even wait for the Genin to respond, knowing that they were anticipating their placements. Deciding not to delay it any longer, he started to call out the names. Teams 1 to 6 were called, which Naruto tuned out because none of the interesting people were in them. Team 7 and onwards, though, peeked his interest. "Team 7 consists of Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Yuu. Team 8 will be Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba. Team 9 is still in circulation, so Team 10 will be Akimichi Choji, Yamanaka Ino and Shiro. Last but not least is Team 11 which consists of Nara Shikamaru, Mitsue Hikari and Uzumaki Naruto."

The last two teams seriously surprised everyone, especially the ones involved. Shikamaru and Naruto had compiled all of the previous records and data about the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, and every single one of them pointed to Shikamaru being put with Choji and Ino to recreate the incredibly successful team. The only thing that would lead to Naruto, Hikari and Shikamaru to be together was their teamwork scores in the academy, but they had waved those off thinking that the Hokage would follow tradition and logic.

It was definitely a pleasant surprise though, as now the Nara would be with his best friends, not that he disliked Choji or anything, but it just wouldn't have been the same. Especially not if the troublesome Yamanaka would boss him around all the time like she did when they were kids.

Choji and Ino on the other hand were disappointed that their childhood friend wouldn't be in their team. They had been together since they were kids, but when he met Naruto he had seemed to click with the blond boy easily, same with Hikari when she joined them. They just couldn't compete anymore, but they supposed that it would all work out in the end, as he was still their friend.

Seeing that there was no protest at all, which definitely surprised the Chuunin teacher, Iruka clapped his hands and decided to give his last piece of instruction before letting them go for lunch. "Now that that is all over, your Jonin sensei will pick you up after lunch. I will hopefully see you all sometime, and I wish you the best of luck in the field. You can all go now." He dismissed the Genin, watching them all leave the classroom, chatting excitedly.

Naruto grinned at his friends as they left the premise of the Academy, choosing to go to Ichiraku Ramen to have their lunch since they had an hour to spend. "It's a relief to know that you two are in my team. I was worried that Shika would be put with Yamanaka and Choji." He said as he patted his Nara friend on the back.

Hikari was just as excited. "Yeah! Though I suppose our team exercise scores were the highest. We did break a few records with the three of us." She chuckled. "I wonder who our sensei is going to be?" She continued as they arrived at Ichiraku's and sat on the stools at the counter. "I doubt that it is going to be some big shot Jonin…"

Naruto and Shikamaru thought about it for a minute before both shrugging their shoulders simultaneously, saying that they didn't know. The girl could only palm her face at how similar they were, though that was probably why they got along so well. "I can't believe you guys sometimes…"

After eating their food and talking for a bit, they noticed that they were almost late to go back to the Academy. Hikari started to panic, but Naruto told her to calm down before grabbing her shoulder and performing a Shunshin to get to the Academy entrance. "You should totally teach me that Naruto!" Hikari exclaimed excitedly, impressed with the technique.

Naruto chuckled at his friend's enthusiasm, telling her that their Jonin sensei would probably teach her if she asked. The pout she gave in response could almost be called cute, was it not that Naruto knew that she did this to make him feel bad. "You are not convincing me, Hikari. You will have to try harder than that." He chuckled as he saw her defeated expression.

They sat down on their usual chairs and waited for their sensei to show. It didn't take long before the other teams were picked up, Team 8 being taken by a red-eyed woman that they recognized as Yuuhi Kurenai and Team 10 being picked up by who Naruto knew to be Sarutobi Asuma, the son of the Hokage. The other teams didn't interest them all that much, and Team 7 was still there.

Team 11 didn't have to wait any longer though, as the door opened slowly. Hikari, Shikamaru and Naruto were almost holding their breath in anticipation, not even registering that it could just be the sensei for Team 7. When the person stepped through the door though, Naruto gasped audibly. "Bird? What are you doing here?" He said, looking at the smiling face of one of his closest friends and surrogate family.

Bird chuckled at the utterly confused expression of the blond and his friends. "For one, I am not on duty so please call me by my name. And to answer your question, I am to be the Jonin sensei of Team 11 of course, why else?" He said with a smirk on his face. "Now, meet me at Naruto-Kun's house for introductions." He said before disappearing. In his confusion Naruto didn't even bother to protest their meeting place, standing up and leading his teammates to the hallway before grabbing their shoulders and disappearing in a Shunshin.

* * *

Break

* * *

After entering the apartment Naruto had gotten his friends situated and was currently brewing tea for his unexpected guests. After bringing the steaming cups of hot water to the living room and placing them on the table, he sat next to his friends on the couch, Kaiji having taken a seat on one of the chairs across from them. "So, Nii-San, you better explain what you are doing outside of ANBU." Naruto demanded almost passionately, seemingly trying to bore holes in the poor man's head with how he was looking at the former ANBU.

In his mind, Kaiji was abandoning his ANBU squad mates and his surrogate family while he took some slightly lighter Jonin duties. Kaiji had expected this and sighed a little, being a bit uncomfortable in this situation. "Well… how do I put this…?" He started, carefully choosing his words. "I kind of wanted to break this to you privately, but I suppose I have no choice but to do it now since you won't let it go … The thing is, Manami is pregnant, and I am the father." He dropped the bombshell on the blond.

On the side, Shikamaru and Hikari were looking at the duo confused until Kaiji decided to elaborate on the situation. "You two will probably know me as Bird from what the Hokage told me, as one of Naruto's teachers and guardians before he graduated the academy. Manami-Chan you will know as Cat." He said, clearing it up for them.

Naruto was staring at the man wide-eyed. He had never noticed anything, being that they never were with him at the same time except for his birthdays, but he did remember them speaking fondly of eachother. "So that is why you left ANBU huh?" Naruto said shakily, still a bit shocked at the revelation, his head bowed down. Kaiji smiled at the blond. "Yes, that is why we left ANBU. As I said I wanted to tell you in a more private setting, but as I said that wasn't a possibility anymore." He admitted as he sipped on his tea, kind of nervous.

The Uzumaki Genin sighed a bit in relief, lifting his head to show a happy smile. "I suppose that congratulations are in order then, huh?" He said jokingly as he went up to Kaiji and hugged him for a little before returning to his seat. "And now you are our Jonin sensei, which is also a relief, with who we could have gotten otherwise…" He added.

Kaiji chuckled heartily at the genin. "I will have to ask you a few more questions, but those will be for later. How about you join me and Manami-Chan at dinner tonight? We can ask you some things and we can answer your questions while having some fun."

Naruto nodded at the invitation. Kaiji smiled at the blond before turning to the other two members of the team. "Anyway, we have been ignoring your teammates for a while now." He said a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry that you had to sit through that, but now we can move on to the fun stuff." Shikamaru and Hikari waved him off, saying that it was not a problem, urging Kaiji to move on.

"Thanks. Ok, so I think we should start with introductions." He cleared his throat a little. "My name is Aozora Kaiji, ex-ANBU captain and Jonin. My likes are bird spotting and training. My dislikes are air pollution and spicy food. My hobby is creating and solving puzzles. My dreams are to see you three succeed and to raise my child in a loving environment." He smiled, thinking about the future before looking at Shikamaru. "Now that I have set the example, it shouldn't be hard. Shikamaru, your turn."

As expected, the Nara let out a groan and muttered a "troublesome" before scratching his chin. "Name's Nara Shikamaru. I like peace and quiet as well as sleep. My dislikes are loud and obnoxious people and having to put in effort. My hobbies are cloud watching and playing Shogi with either Naruto or my dad, and my dream for the future is to retire at a nice age and raise a family while relaxing in my retirement." He said in the laziest voice Kaiji had ever heard, and that was saying something since the man knew Sloth. In the end he shook his head and chose to move on to the only girl in their company. "I hope you have a more exciting introduction, Hikari." He said jokingly.

Hikari just sighed looking at her lazy friend, who couldn't look more bored and uninterested, before smiling and starting her introduction. "I sure hope so. Anyhow, name's Mitsue Hikari. Likes are flowers and spending time with my friends. Dislikes are spiders and… nothing else, really. My hobby is dancing and my dream for the future is making a name for myself and having a family."

A brilliant smile was on her lips as she thought about the future. It was going to be fun with her two best friends, although they were her only real friends. Kaiji smiled at her and nodded. "We will work on that dream of yours; I think that you can make it." He turned to his last student. "Well Naruto, while I think that we all know you enough, I still ask you to do the introduction. Maybe Shikamaru and Hikari can learn something new about you."

Naruto agreed to that idea, so he cleared his throat a little and started his "introduction". "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like reading and spending time with Shika and Hikari. My dislikes are failing and untrustworthy people. Hobbies include pulling pranks with Rat, though we won't be able to do that anymore, experimenting with seals and jutsu, hanging out with Shika and Hikari and playing shogi with Shika. My dream is to live up to the name of Boar and to find out who my parents are." Naruto got really passionate about his dream, a fire appearing in his eyes that Shikamaru and Hikari had never seen before.

"I am sure you will Naruto, you are well on your way." Kaiji said, giving the blond a thumbs-up. He sipped his tea again and put it down before continuing. "Now that we have finished the introductions we were supposed to do some kind of test to see your teamwork, but I don't see the point as you three have the highest scores in team assignments since… ever, really." He chuckled when he saw their proud faces. "What I do want to do though, is testing you by fighting you one-on-one to get a feel for your skills and tactical ability. We will do that tomorrow as I don't feel the need to do it now and you three are probably tired and bored."

Hikari could only agree and Shikamaru was almost sleeping upright. Naruto looked at his friends and chuckled before agreeing as well. "Ok then, you are dismissed. I want you three at training ground 34 at 9 AM tomorrow morning." Kaiji ordered, receiving a "Yes sir!" from the three Genin.

Hikari and Shikamaru proceeded to say goodbye before both leaving the apartment, leaving Kaiji and Naruto alone. Content silence reigned for a while before Kaiji noticed that it was quite late already. "So, Naruto, do you want to head out now? Manami is waiting for us at her apartment." He said as he got up. Naruto nodded and prepared to leave as well.

When they were both ready, they left the apartment, Kaiji putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder before they disappeared with a swirl of leaves.

Appearing at an apartment complex, which Naruto noticed was one of the many shinobi-only places. They entered the complex and went up a few flights of stairs before stopping at one of the doors. "Here we are." Kaiji said as he knocked on the door. They waited for several seconds before the door opened and Manami appeared in the entrance way, smiling at seeing Naruto and Kaiji. "Please come in, Kaiji-Kun, Naruto-Kun." She said, stepping aside to let them in and closing the door behind them. "Go settle yourselves in the living room and I will make some tea." She almost ordered. They had no other choice but to obey, sitting down in the small living room which had a couch and a table. After a while Manami came in with the steaming cups of tea and sat down with them.

Now that they were sitting there in relative silence, Naruto took the time to observe Manami. He noticed that she looked a little pale and tired, as well as the fact that she seemed to rub her stomach from time to time. "You look quite tired, Manami-Nee, are you alright?" He asked a bit worriedly, though he knew she could take care of herself.

A beautiful smile appeared on the woman's face at the thoughtful question. "Yes, I am quite alright Naruto-Kun. I have been a little nauseous, but that comes with the pregnancy I suppose. Anyway, dinner should be ready by now, so let's go to the dining room." She gave the blond another smile as she stood up, the guys following her as she went to the dining table. She told them to sit down before going to the kitchen herself and coming back with a steaming pot of what Naruto could smell was her signature stew that she had made him so many times. A little drool escaped from his mouth as he deeply inhaled the delicious scent. The two adults couldn't help but chuckle at the newly minted ninja as he showed his childish side.

After Manami joined them at the table, they all said a quick "itadakimasu" before digging in to the food. They all ate quietly for a while before Kaiji decided to break the silence. "So, Naruto, as you know me and Manami-Chan wanted to ask you a few questions." He started. Naruto could hear a bit of nervousness as well as anticipation in his voice. The blond nodded at the man, urging him to continue, quite curious at what the man was nervous about.

Kaiji for his part took a bite of food before restarting the conversation. "Ok, well… The first thing we wanted to ask you about was your apartment building, or more specifically the two empty apartments in it." It wasn't very hard for the blond to figure out what the man wanted, but Naruto decided that since the man was making the effort to ask, he would listen before giving his judgment.

"The thing is, me and Manami both have apartments, as you know, but they are both only fit for a single person really. Manami and I have thought about getting ourselves a house in one of the shinobi districts, but we figured that we didn't really want a house with a child around so many battle hardened shinobi." He explained. "So, after considering several other options, we had kind of an idea that we thought that you would like. I suppose that you have figured it out already, but I will ask just because I made it all this way. Can Manami and I use the two empty apartments to make our home?" He pushed out the question, a hopeful look appearing on both his and Manami's faces.

Naruto mulled it over for a little bit before smiling a little. "I suppose you can. I was planning to use them as storage for my books, since I am having trouble containing them in my own apartment, but I will just make do with storage seals." He mused as he grinned at the relieved faces that his friends and mentors had on their faces. "What? You guys thought that I would refuse? I am deeply hurt." He said jokingly, making Kaiji and Manami chuckle a little. "Anyway, what were your other questions?"

This time Manami took the wheel, grinning in excitement as opposed to the serious mood earlier. "I think you will like this one. How would you like to be a brother?" Naruto raised one of his eyebrows in a confused manner, not really understanding what she meant. "I don't get it. I have no family left remember? How can I… " Understanding slowly dawned on his face, followed up by a bright smile.

"While we won't be able to adopt you since you are already an adult according to law, we would still like to take you into the family and consider you as our son and older brother to our child." Manami elaborated. For Naruto this was too good to be true. He would have "parents" although they were more like friends and siblings than parents, and he would have a younger sibling that he could protect and cherish. "Of course I want to! I would be stupid not to. Who in their right minds wouldn't want to be a part of your family?" Naruto was practically beaming. Naruto knew that his biological parents were either dead or had abandoned him, but he had silently hoped that they would return one day. He also knew that no-one would adopt him as a kid, seeing as everyone hated him with a passion. He had given up a long time ago, but here he was, having been given the opportunity to be part of a family.

In his excitement, Naruto started asking a load of questions at the speed of light. "Do I just call you Nii-San and Nee-San? It can cause confusion. Can we all live together? When is my little brother or sister due? Can I teach them when they're older?" After that it was little more than gibberish, so Kaiji decided to put a stop to it. "Naruto… Naruto! Can you hold up for a minute? I could barely understand the first few questions, so I will answer those." He chuckled a little. The blond hadn't been this excited and genuinely happy in ages. It worried them a little that he was this accepting of the offer. They thought that he would argue that he was self-sufficient by now and that he didn't need them anymore.

Deciding not to dwell on it though, Kaiji answered the blonde's questions. "Ok so, first off you may call us whatever you like, but that is up to you. Yes we can all live together, but we will have to work a lot on the building to accomplish that, but that will be for later. Your sibling is due in a little under 8 months since Manami-Chan has been pregnant for about 2 weeks now, and lastly yes you can teach them, but only when they are old enough. Don't want to harm them now, do we?"

Naruto shook his head at that. He had come down from his high, and was a bit calmer now. "I'm sorry, but I am so excited about the whole thing!" He said, laughing a little. "You probably think I am a naïve idiot for accepting so fast, but I assure you that I did think about it for a while." Relieved, they all went on with dinner and small talk.

The rest of the evening went pretty smoothly, all of them enjoying their first "real" family moment together. Not too long after that it was getting pretty late, the moon high up in the sky shining its light through the windows of the tiny apartment. This fact was picked up by Kaiji. "Naruto, it's getting late, and I think it is about time that you return to your apartment for the night. We will have to give your teammates a good demonstration after all." He winked at the blond, causing said boy to chuckle.

"I see what you mean Nii-San, it's pretty late." He said as he stood up from his chair and walking up to stand opposite of his new family, who had stood up to say goodbye. "I was just enjoying myself with my new family." He smiled a happy smile before stepping forward and grabbing Manami and Kaiji in a hug. "I hope that this wasn't a dream and that I won't wake up now. Anyway, I will see you tomorrow Nii-San, and I will see you around Manami-Nee."

Both Manami and Kaiji turned a little sad at Naruto being so cynical, but they supposed that he would be happier if it turned out to be true. Having said his final piece, Naruto walked towards the door and gave a small wave back before stepping out in the quiet, chilly night and disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

* * *

Break

* * *

The next morning couldn't come more quickly for the blond Uzumaki. He was more than excited to see what his friends could do, though it probably wasn't much more than he already knew, as well as show off in front of his friends which was always a bonus. He didn't really get to show off at all in his academy days, having to keep a low profile and all to avoid the general populace from knowing about his skills, and while he was a lot more mature than anyone his age, in the end he is still a kid.

Getting up early, he showered, got a hearty breakfast, strapped on his weapons and made his way to the training ground, starting his morning exercises. His morning exercises were always his time to think and kind of meditate while doing them and it was no surprise when his thoughts turned to what had happened last night.

Now that he had calmed down from the entirely overwhelming experience, he knew that something was up with the whole thing. Nothing bad, but something more than what they had said the day before. They had always told him to socialize more, and that he was too serious and hard on himself all the time. Sure, he had friends now, but they didn't get to see all of him. Maybe this was just an elaborate ruse to get him a family and to get him to display his feelings more? He would have a sibling to take care of; did they think it would mellow him out some? Sometimes he just didn't understand what was going on in the heads of those crazy people.

On the other hand, it would be the perfect opportunity to spy on him… shaking his head to get those darker thoughts out of his head, he mused that the first option would work out well. He was getting too paranoid, although that wasn't all bad for a ninja, but about your own family and friends? Not a chance. Finishing up his last exercises, as he saw his teammates arriving at the grounds, he decided to let the whole thing play out and hope that it would help him out some.

Standing up he walked to his two friends and greeted them. "Hey guys, what's up?" He said as he fist bumped Shikamaru and gave Hikari a friendly hug. "Nothing much Naruto." Hikari answered, Shikamaru giving a lazy shrug. The Nara seemed to be more interested in the clouds than actually having meaningful conversation. This changed though, when Hikari poked him in the ribs, causing him to double over and grumble at her.

Naruto chuckled at the daily display. "You guys ready for the test?" He asked curiously as they walked to a big tree and sat in the shade. As usual, Shikamaru groaned and muttered a signature "troublesome" while Hikari answered, although not as excited as normal. "Not too excited Naruto, I didn't really learn anything out of the academy as I wanted to have fun before moving into the serious ninja lifestyle, you know? So I am afraid that sensei won't be impressed at all…" She mumbled, burying her face in her knees.

Both males sighed a little at this, knowing about her insecurity problems. She had never shown them openly to others, but her eyes had told a different story to them. Being the kind of guy he is, Naruto decided to cheer her up. "I think you will do fine. He won't be impressed with your repertoire, I have to be honest, but what you do know you are good at." He said, turning his head to look at her. "Remember, I have known sensei for a long time. He cares most about having a good foundation, and you were in the top half at the academy. You'll do fine. We can always teach you when you are ready to branch out." He gave her a thumbs-up.

Hikari smiled appreciatively. He always knew what to say. He was honest, but that didn't hurt as he always had a compliment ready to soften the blow. "Thanks Naruto, I will take you up on that offer sometime. I think it is about time I start bettering myself." She admitted. Naruto turned to his other friend. "The same counts for you, Shika. Can't have you fall behind now can we?" The annoyed look the Nara shot him had told him enough, Naruto's amusement clearly seeping through on his face.

The rest of the time waiting was spent in silence, which wasn't long as Kaiji arrived only about 20 minutes later. "Well, look at that. You were early." He grinned excitedly at his new students. He seemed battle ready, wearing the standard Jonin uniform with a simple katana on his back. "Let's not beat around the bush and get straight to the testing shall we?" Receiving a nod from his charges he continued on. "I will fight Hikari first, followed by Shikamaru and in the end Naruto and I will do a demonstration. The fights will last until I deem I have seen enough, so no giving up Shikamaru-Kun." Shikamaru grumbled under his breath. "Now that that's over with, Hikari if you will…" He mentioned for her to follow him to the center of the grounds.

She did so, albeit nervously, and slipped into a near perfect academy stance, legs shoulder width apart and her hands in front of her face, and Kaiji opting for a bit of a loose stance with his legs spread a little and his arms out in front of him. As they were both ready, Kaiji called a quick "Go!" and waited for the girl to attack.

Hikari on the other hand was shaking a little, extremely nervous for what was to come. Sure, Naruto had assured her that there was nothing to worry about, but she had never been that good… She sighed. "Well, let's get it over with then." She muttered under her breath. Having said that, she took off towards Kaiji at a decent Genin speed.

Arriving in front of the man, she went for a punch with her right arm, putting all of her weight and speed behind it to get maximum power into it. Anticipating it, Kaiji lifted his arms into a block but was surprised when he actually felt the punch. Pushing her off, he got a bit of distance before charging into Hikari to test her defense and reflexes.

Moving in at Chuunin speed, he went for a low roundhouse kick, again surprised when she jumped over it, dodging it completely, using the height of her jump to retaliate with a dropkick which Kaiji dodged. Not letting her on the offensive though, he charged at her again, this time with a punch to her abdomen. She managed to get a block in, but it was easily broken through as Kaiji followed through with it and hit her square in the stomach.

Having used a bit too much force, Hikari was sent flying back, skidding for a bit before coming to a stop. As she laid there wheezing, she was having thoughts about how badly she was doing, but Naruto's words kept ringing through her head. In the end she stood up, a defiant look in her eyes as she took off in a sprint towards Kaiji.

Jumping when she was a few feet away from her opponent, Hikari went in for a flying kick, which was blocked by Kaiji, before using his arms as leverage to jump over him and use her other leg to kick at the back of Kaiji's head. She was disappointed though, as her leg was caught by said man, who threw her away. "What? You didn't think that I would get fooled by that did you? I am not a Jonin for nothing you know?" He said as he saw her baffled look. "Now, come at me!" he shouted as he gestured with his hands.

Gladly taking the invitation, Hikari ran at him once more, going in for another punch. Kaiji decided to dodge this time, having felt the punch from before, and grabbed her overextended limb, using her momentum to move her into a headlock. What he didn't expect though, was finding that he had a log in his arms instead of the girl. He threw the log away and looked around for her, but couldn't see her in the slightest.

Figuring that she was probably in the forest, he pulsed out his chakra, finding that she was indeed in the trees. "You can come out, I can sense you." He told her, watching her jump out of the branches of the tree Naruto and Shikamaru were sitting under. "That was pretty good. I didn't notice you use the substitution. I have seen enough of your skills now. You are pretty good at Taijutsu, I even felt your punch a little, and your substitution was seal-less. Good Job!" he grinned at her relieved expression. "We can broaden your repertoire and I can teach you a lot I can tell you. Naruto can help you out as well if you need it. Right, Naruto?" The blond responded with a thumbs-up. "Good. Ok, Shikamaru you are up!"

The Nara in question couldn't help but sigh in defeat. He would have to do effort. "Alright then, let's get this over with so I can watch clouds." He pushed himself off the ground and walked to the center of the training field, where he stood with his hands in his pockets. Kaiji couldn't help but face plant at the nonchalance the teen showed. Anyway, he had to deal with it to see the skills of the young Nara, so he would put up with it.

"Alright then, are you ready?" He asked, but didn't wait for an answer as he bolted at Shikamaru. He knew that the Nara were defensive and tactical fighters, so he would see what the boy could do in that regard before testing his offense. Going for a frontal assault, he planned to go in for a punch, cocking his arm back, but was forced to dodge as Shikamaru's shadow lashed out along the ground, almost connecting with his before he dodged to the side to avoid it.

Not deterred by this in the least though, he continued to advance towards the Nara who was just standing there, his hands in the Rat sign. There was something off about this, Kaiji thought as he kept looking around the Genin, not spotting anything in particular. Still moving on though, he almost came in reaching distance before he heard a faint "poof", signifying substitution.

He arrived at the spot where Shikamaru had just stood, looking around, but was confused when he couldn't move his head. "Shadow Possession Technique: Success." The Nara could be heard saying from behind Kaiji. The ex-ANBU grinned though, as he broke the possession and turned around to face him. "Impressive. You managed to fool me and use the log that Hikari used for the substitution, but alas, I can break out of it. And I assume you know why?" He asked the Nara. Shikamaru decided to humor the man, finding it too troublesome to keep it and have the man egg him on. "It's either because you are more than twice as strong as me, or you have so much chakra that you can pulse it to disrupt the flow of my chakra to disrupt the jutsu. Knowing that you are an ex-ANBU captain it could be both." He explained lazily, picking his ear with his pinky finger. "I wouldn't test me in Taijutsu; I'm not any good at it."

Kaiji just laughed at the terrible attempt to get out of it. "You're a funny guy. Let's see your skills and let me determine that." He said as he took off at the lazy Nara. Shikamaru sighed but slipped into the academy stance anyway, waiting for his sensei to reach him. When Kaiji did reach him and went in for a punch, Shikamaru dodged to the side, completely sidestepping the attack, and tried to land his elbow on the back of Kaiji's head, which ultimately failed as said man kicked off and rolled forwards. Halfway through the roll he pushed off his hands, performing a handstand, and kicked at the Genin's head, which was swiftly avoided by the Nara.

Knowing that he was vulnerable in this position, Kaiji followed through with the kick and pushed off his hands, landing on his feet. He had no time to gain his bearings though, as a few kunai came flying at him which forced him to substitute with a log. Shikamaru smirked as he thought he had the man, but was confused as the log in front of him didn't disappear. He also didn't see the punch that was now buried in his gut.

A few globs of spit exited his mouth as he stumbled back, doubled over in pain. "You expected your plan to work out perfectly. Too overconfident. I know that your plans usually work, but don't expect them to. I know that you have contingencies, but when you expect your initial plan to work you won't be fast enough to actually work them. Now that that part is done, your plan was very well thought out and would fool a Chuunin in the heat of battle, but as I said don't expect it too. Your Taijutsu is decent enough if you dodge. You will need to up your strength but mostly your speed to be able to dodge around attacks as you seem to do mostly. A better reaction time is a must, as you were too slow to dodge my punch. Also, just like with Hikari we will widen your skillset, Naruto and I will help you but I do ask you to have your father teach you the more advanced family techniques as they are really useful."

Getting a nod from Shikamaru he turned to Naruto. "Now, let's have a spar shall we? Show your teammates what high level ninja fight like." He said as he clapped his hands. He hadn't had a spar with Naruto in a little while, so he was quite excited, as was Naruto who jumped up and jogged to the center of the field. "Any restrictions?" He asked casually as he cracked his neck and knuckles. Kaiji seemed to contemplate this for a bit before giving an answer. "Try not to use any of your more destructive techniques, no other restrictions really."

Seeing the blond nod in affirmation, Kaiji didn't see any reason to stall, so he gave the signal to start as he readied himself for what Naruto had to bring to the table. He didn't have to wait long as Naruto whipped out his guns and rapidly fired two earth bullets, which slammed hard into the ground when their target disappeared, having jumped into the air.

Now hanging in the air, Kaiji went through a few hand signs, preparing a jutsu to keep the blond busy. "Fuuton: Pressure Damage." He said as he gathered Wind chakra at his mouth, creating a big ball of pressurized wind that he proceeded to launch at Naruto, which also had the added effect of pushing him back a little. Naruto didn't seem too worried about the jutsu though, holstering his guns and making a few hand signs he stomped the ground with his foot, and an earth wall erected, stopping it in its tracks.

He didn't have much time to appraise his handiwork though as Kaiji jumped on the earth wall and pushed off it, trying to get close to the blond to eliminate the possibility of Naruto pulling out his guns. The blond, not too bothered as he was competent in Taijutsu, moved to meet the man head on, sidestepping Kaiji's fist and trying to land a knee in his stomach, which was caught before it could hit.

Using the momentum of the kick, Kaiji let himself be carried and thrown backwards, creating a little distance before dashing in again. He went for a high kick this time, moving close and aiming for the head, but this kick too was caught, and Kaiji threw him off.

It went on like this for a while, both Kaiji and Naruto trying to hit one another, kicking and punching at eachother only for it to be blocked, redirected or dodged. This ended though, when Kaiji caused Naruto to overextend on a punch and kicked the blond in the ribs, launching him for a short distance after which Naruto was able to flip and land.

Rubbing his chest a little, trying to get rid of the stingy sensation, Naruto thought about a new strategy to use. He looked at his opponent a little before widening his eyes a little and grinning slightly, making Kaiji a little uneasy. What had Naruto realize? Kaiji hadn't accounted for the fact that there was now considerable distance between them, too much for him to close when Naruto, for example, pulled out his guns.

Glad to take advantage of the opportunity granted, Naruto decided to use a Jutsu to occupy Kaiji before pulling out his guns. "Katon: Phoenix Flower Technique." He said as he moved his hand up to his mouth and blew out a group of fireballs the size of a fist at the Jonin, who was forced to dodge to avoid getting burned, giving Naruto the time to pull out his guns and charge up some fire bullets.

Firing them at Kaiji, the bullets taking a slightly curving path, the Uzumaki ninja was surprised to see them hit their intended target. The bullets went on to severely burn the man on impact, the projectiles carried an incredible amount of heat, but Naruto widened his eyes when his badly burned sensei made place for a splintered log.

He was once again surprised when a pair of hands burst from the ground and grabbed at his ankles, trying to pull him into the ground. He smirked though, as he pulsed earth chakra through his feet and forced his way out of the hands, jumping away a safe distance. "The Double Suicide Decapitation, huh? Too bad you forgot that I can use that jutsu, _sensei_." Naruto added mockingly at the end. Kaiji appeared from the ground a fair distance away, chuckling at his student. "I suppose I did." The man admitted a bit sheepishly.

Naruto could only palm his face at the man. "You never forget stuff, how could you forget what jutsu I know? Anyway, I think it's time we throw some Kenjutsu in the mix." The blond proposed, drawing his ninjato slowly. Kaiji for his part only replicated the action, drawing his own sword and holding it in front of him in a loose grip. Nodding at eachother, the two disappeared in a blur, meeting in the middle in a clash of steel. Slashing at eachother, both parried and blocked strikes while simultaneously attacking to try and break through their opponent's guard.

After a bit of trading blows, Naruto went in for a stab in the lower abdomen, which was then parried by Kaiji who then proceeded to perform an upwards slash which Naruto dodged. Here he saw his opening, ducking low and slamming his shoulder into the older man, catching said man off guard and causing him to stumble, allowing the blond to move in in a blur and kick Kaiji in the stomach, following up with a horizontal slash with his ninjato, trying to end the fight.

It was not to be though, as Kaiji blocked the strike with his sword. "I am not having you beat me yet, Naruto." He said with a grin as he pushed the blond away with his sword and made a hand sign before vanishing and appearing behind him. Naruto was just fast enough to dodge the following stab, retaliating with a kick to make Kaiji take some distance, but this plan was foiled when the man caught it. Firmly gripping the leg, Kaiji lifted the boy into the air and threw him away, sprinting after him and kicking him in the stomach to launch him into the ground. Taking this opportunity to end the fight, Kaiji put his sword on Naruto's neck, finishing the spar.

Sighing in defeat, Naruto looked up to his long time teacher, and couldn't help but smile at the man. "Ok, ok, I give up. Did I at least do well?" He asked, getting a punch in the shoulder, coughing a little from the dirt and dust that kicked up when he was kicked into the ground. "Don't ask stupid questions, you did fine." Kaiji answered, helping the blond up to his feet and wrapping an arm around his shoulder, leading them to the other two genin.

Looking at the two, he found only amazement and admiration, even on the face of the normally apathetic Nara. "Not what you expected, huh?" Naruto asked jokingly. Shikamaru was the first to shake off the shock. "I suspected you to be good, but to go almost toe-to-toe with our Jonin-Sensei?" He said, scratching his chin.

Hikari had also woken up it seemed, as she decided to give her opinion. "That was so cool Naruto! It's amazing that you can fight Kaiji-Sensei head on!" She grinned at the blond. Said boy didn't think it was that impressive though. "I am quite sure that Sensei was holding back though, and I am not that good yet, I need to be better to reach my dream." He clenched his fists, the fire that they had witnessed before returning into his eyes before disappearing completely as soon as it appeared. "Anyway, Sensei, do you have anything to say?"

Kaiji, who was looking at his Genin interact, nodded his head as he stepped closer. "Yes, I do have to say some things." He cleared his throat. "First of all, you all did a splendid job in the test today, and I will set up a training regimen with what I gathered on your speed, strength and overall performance. On top of that we will discuss the direction you want to go in in terms of being a ninja so that we can add specialized training on your subject of choice. Is that acceptable?" They all nodded in agreement, so he continued. "Now, I want you all to be ready for the Chuunin Exams in six months, which will be held in Konoha. I am not supposed to tell you about them yet, but I will make an exception for you three as I think that it will be a good goal for you to work towards."

"Now that that is all over with." He clapped in his hands. "You are all dismissed, as I need to report to the Hokage about the results." The three Genin once again nodded, leaving the training grounds to go eat together, leaving Kaiji to Shunshin to the Hokage office.

* * *

Break

* * *

Reappearing out of nowhere and startling a few people who were already present, Kaiji greeted the Hokage before standing at the back of the office in the shadows, falling back a bit into his ANBU habits. Observing the door quietly, he watched as the other Jonin as well as the Chuunin teachers slowly started entering the office until everyone had arrived. Only one person was missing, but Kaiji had a feeling that the Hokage would go on regardless.

The Hokage, who had also seen this, cleared his throat to gather the attention of the people present. Now that the focus that on him, he started the meeting. "Now that everyone is here, except Kakashi who will probably arrive later, we can start the reports for the Genin teams." He started. After looking around for a bit he continued. "I will say your team number and then you will step to the front and say if your team has passed or failed. If your team has passed I would like you to give a quick description on how they passed. Am I understood?"

Getting the agreements from the present Jonin, the Hokage started the listings.

"Team 1."  
"Failed."

"Team 2."  
"Failed."

"Team 3."  
"Failed."

"Team 4."  
"Failed."

"Team 5."  
"Failed."

"Team 6."  
"Failed."

"Since Kakashi is still absent, Team 8."  
"Passed." Came the answer of the team sensei, Yuuhi Kurenai. All of the Jonin had started sweating at the fact that none of the Genin until now had passed, but what they didn't know is that that was planned. Being as it is, the Hokage was sitting there, no trouble on his face whatsoever when he nodded at the black haired woman to continue. "I conducted a test which was a search and capture, but there was a twist where the one that caught me would be the one passing. They needed time to figure out everything, which I suspect was mostly Aburame Shino's intellect and Hyuuga Hinata's goodwill that ended up bringing them together to try and capture me in the end."

Listening to the report carefully, the Hokage nodded at the good work the Genin showed and wished her luck with training her team before moving on to the next squad.

"Team 9 is still in circulation, so Team 10." He announced, causing Sarutobi Asuma step forward to give his report. "My team passed." He started, taking a puff of his cigarette before continuing on. "It was kind of a surprise, really. I was expecting them to not work together at all, thinking that taking out Nara Shikamaru would hurt the team dynamic, but I was proven wrong. I gave them a mission scenario where they had to retrieve two scrolls guarded by clones, with the obvious stipulation that the ones who got a scroll at the end passed. The new kid, Shiro, seemed to pick up on the purpose pretty quickly and had clever ways to get his teammates to cooperate. It is kind of confusing, as his report in the academy showed unnatural mediocrity. Anyway, as I was saying Shiro managed to get his teammates to work with him, so I had to pass them." The bearded man ended, taking another puff of his cigarette and looking his father in the eye.

Hiruzen only looked back, giving a slight nod in acknowledgement before calling out the, for now, last team. "Team 11, report." In response to the command of the Hokage, Kaiji slipped out of the shadows and positioned himself in front of the village leaded, startling quite a few people. The ex-ANBU captain seemed to notice this, chuckling at their reactions. "I thought that I had made myself noticeable enough, but it seems not." He said before turning to the Hokage who had an amused glint in his eye. "Team 11 passed Hokage-Sama. I didn't give them a teamwork assignment, as they had some of the highest teamwork scores ever, but I did test their individual combat ability, and I have to say that I am impressed even though there is still quite a ways to go." The man said, looking at the village leader.

The Hokage chuckled at his subordinate's weird ways, finding them amusing. He decided to not do anything to change it, seeing as the man was one of his most reliable ninja. "That's fine, Kaiji-Kun. Good luck to you as well. Now-" Before he could end the meeting as everyone had given their reports, the door suddenly opened, seeing a bored looking, silver haired man walking into the room, reading one of his infamous orange books silently while entering.

Looking up from the book, the man blinked with his one visible eye. "Ah, it seems I have arrived." He said nonchalantly, lowering his book slightly and nodding at the Hokage before returning his attention to the book. The old man could only sigh at the tardy man, but didn't say anything about it, deciding to just get his report over with so everyone could leave. "So, Kakashi, nice of you to join us. Can you please report your team test?"

Kakashi nodded once more, flipping to the next page of his book before starting his report. "They are an interesting bunch of kids, but nothing surprising other than the fact that I think that Yuu kid is faking it. He seemed restricted in his movements and his eyes showed me that he understood the test from the start but decided to only act at the last moment. He also managed to entice Uchiha Sasuke into joining him after which it wasn't hard to convince Haruno Sakura to join as well. I don't really care though; it will keep me occupied for the near future." He said, flipping another page. The Hokage looked intrigued at what Kakashi had to say about Yuu, but that would have to wait for another time. Everyone else was just surprised at Kakashi passing a team. "Good, good. Now that everyone has given their reports I would like to wish you all a good day." He said, dismissing all of the ninja in the office.

* * *

Break

* * *

After Naruto got home he went to his living room, pulled out a book and took his place in the reclining chair. His mind wasn't on the book though, as he was thinking about what was going to happen in the future. "Probably D-rank missions." He mused out loud, grimacing a little at the thought of them. Of course his teachers had briefed him on the horror of gardening, painting fences and chasing cats. Sure, he had thought at the start that it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but then Rat had taken him to watch some Genin do missions one day. It had made him cringe horribly when he saw how some of the Genin looked after chasing the hellcat. Alas, he had resolved to deal with it when the time came, but he wouldn't like it.

Then he thought about training. It would be fun to help his friends get to a higher level, and it'd be a laugh all around. They would have to step their game up though. He didn't want them to die on him, not like Boar had. He hadn't been there, but he still felt responsible somehow. It felt stupid, and he knew that he couldn't have done anything about it, but that was how it felt to him anyway. He would not lose another loved one and feel like that again.

Deciding to not take his thoughts further into that direction, he decided to reflect on how the day went. The test was a surprise for sure. He didn't think that Hikari had so much strength in her, though she had shown some in the Academy, just not so much. Kaiji had said that he felt it, that didn't happen for him until a year into his training. She must, knowingly or unknowingly, be using chakra to enhance her blows somehow. Shika was same old same old, but Hikari was a pleasant surprise.

The future looked bright, but he would still be careful and look around every corner and behind his back religiously to make sure everyone was safe and sound.

* * *

Chapter End

* * *

There you have it.

On popular vote I have put Shika into the team, pretty excited about that. I hope I depicted him well in the battle, I'm a little worried that I didn't, but I will let you guys decide that for yourselves.

Also I gave Naruto a pseudo-family which is nice.

It might be a bit unrefined, but I am still looking for someone to proofread these.

Please remember to review; I appreciate any constructive criticism that you have to give me.

PM me if you have questions as well, I will try to answer them.

Cheers,

LethalBlades.


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